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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE SPIRIT 

OF THE 

NEW THOUGHT 

ESSJTS AND ADDRESSES 

BY REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS AND LEADERS 
EDITED BY 

HORATIO W. DRESSER 

// 

Author of "The Power op Silence." Honorary 

President op the International 

New Thought Alliance 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 



.117* 



?^» 



Copyright, 1917, 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 



MAY 24 1917 
It* /, 



PREFACE 

The New Thought has attained a more 
significant stage of development. It now has 
a successful international organization hold- 
ing annual conventions that are truly rep- 
resentative. The various branches of the 
movement in different states and in foreign 
countries are working together to foster all 
that the New Thought stands for at its best. 
The stage of mere individualism has passed. 
The time for active cooperation is at hand, 
and the social values of the movement are 
receiving greater recognition. This has been 
especially noticeable since the conventions in 
San Francisco and Chicago, in 1915 and 1916. 
Under these circumstances it seems fitting 
that the history of the movement should be 
written. It also seems important to bring to- 
gether in a single volume some of the best 
essays and addresses by representative leaders. 
The papers here collected are for the most 
part from what may be called the middle 
period of the movement, when it was passing 
out of the stage denominated "Mental Science" 
and taking shape as the New Thought. It 



vi PREFACE 

was then that the leaders of the movement in 
New England were pleading for the ideals 
which are now beginning to be more fully 
realized. Some of the papers were read at 
the first annual convention of the Interna- 
tional Metaphysical League, held in Boston, 
October, 1889. The other essays were pub- 
lished in The Mental Healing Monthly and 
other periodicals. These essays express a 
common spirit and are as timely now as when 
first published. Taken collectively they stand 
for the movement which spread from Boston 
and New England across the country to Cali- 
fornia. 

It is not easy to define the New Thought, 
for its adherents differ in point of approach, 
in method and interest. The term is here 
used as it has been employed in the Meta- 
physical Club of Boston, the purposes of 
which are: "To promote interest in and the 
practice of a true spiritual philosophy of life 
and happiness; to show that through right 
thinking one's loftiest ideals may be brought 
into present realization ; and to advance in- 
telligent and systematic treatment of disease 
by spiritual and mental methods." The fol- 
lowing essays point the way beyond mere 
healing to an interpretation of life from the 



PREFACE vii 

inner point of view, disclosing a broadly 
spiritual vision, a practical approach to Chris- 
tianity. Several of the essayists call attention 
to human selfishness as more central than the 
"erroneous beliefs" more frequently men- 
tioned by New Thought writers, and others 
emphasize the great truth that man is an in- 
strument of the Divine wisdom, in contrast 
with the customary emphasis on the finite self 
as the centre of power. An effort is also 
made to pass beyond the mere optimism of 
suggestions and affirmations to a well-seasoned 
spiritual philosophy. Thus the common trend 
of thought is in line with the constructive 
spirit pleaded for by Mr. James A. Edgerton, 
president of the International New Thought 
Alliance, when he said that the New Thought 
"not only builds new and better bodies and 
better conditions, but it should build new and 
better character, new and better service and, 
as an inevitable result, a new and better civili- 
zation. As an evidence of its power to con- 
struct, it should build an organization as vital, 
as healthful, as helpful, and as prosperous 
as itself. This would not only strengthen all 
the members of the organization, but would 
stand before the world as a symbol and a 
representative of the Thought. As a basis 



viii PREFACE 

of this unity, all we need is the harmony that 
grows out of love for mankind and for each 
other. There never has been a cause that 
could so help the world if we but live up to 
our opportunities and give it power through 
cooperation. We must sink all personal and 
petty jealousies, all narrowness, all misunder- 
standings, and manifest the one life in deed 
as well as in word." 

This volume is sent forth with the hope that 
it will increase this social, constructive spirit, 
and arouse new interest in the central prin- 
ciples of the movement. Such an interest will 
naturally turn upon an interpretation of the 
new age in which we live. This in turn will 
give a larger vision than that made manifest 
by any one leader or writer. This larger 
vision disclosed by various teachers working 
together toward a common end as stated in 
the concluding chapter, was plainly the ideal 
of the writers to whom we are indebted for 
these essays. Some of the writers have fin- 
ished their earthly life. But their spirit lives 
on to inspire the present leaders. To the 
others grateful recognition is given for per- 
mission to reissue their addresses and essays. 
No changes have been made that in any way 
modify the author's views, and the editor's 



PREFACE ix 

notes are chiefly historical. The editor has 
included such papers of his own as best serve 
to define the New Thought or round out the 
plan of the volume, not for the sake of in- 
sisting on any ideas of his own, already pub- 
lished elsewhere. The New Thought is al- 
lowed to speak for itself, although in other 
connections some of us may presently make 
more effort to estimate it with reference to 
the mental theory of disease, the method of 
healing, and the method of spiritual medi- 
tation. As one who has been associated with 
the movement since the days when it was 
denominated the "Boston craze," in 1883, the 
editor would suggest that the constructive 
way to estimate the New Thought is from the 
practical point of view; not by an adverse 
criticism of its idea of God, its conception of 
man as "divine," or any other theoretical point 
sometimes assailed by those who have had no 
evidence of the truth of mental healing. A 
movement which has lived so long, and which 
sprang out of pioneer investigations dating 
back more than forty years prior to 1883, has 
within it a truth which has come to stay, and 
is to be assimilated, not dismissed, because 

it may not readily be defined. „ „ r ^ 

ri. W. U. 

Boston, Tanuary 1, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 1 

CHAPTER! 

A Rational and Positive Spiritual Philo- 
sophy. Henry Wood 17 

CHAPTER II 

The Abundant Life. Sarah J. Farmer 29 

CHAPTER III 

The Significance of the New Metaphysical 
Movement. E. M. Chesley 37 

CHAPTER IV 

The Gospel of Healing. /. W. Winkley 47 

CHAPTER V 

Man a Medium of God. Julius A. Dresser 59 

CHAPTER VI 

Can Disease Be Entirely Destroyed? Emma 
G. Ware 67 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 



FAGS 

CHAPTER VII 

The Disease of Apprehensiveness. Edward 
A. Pennock 73 



CHAPTER VIII 

"Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear/' Walter 
B. Adams 83 



CHAPTER IX 

A Page from My Inner Life. Fred V. Fuller 89 

CHAPTER X 

The Ideal Healer. Ellen M. Dyer 97 

CHAPTER XI 

Healing Suggestions. Edward A. Pennock 103 

CHAPTER XII 

The Sermon on the Mount. Horatio W. 

Dresser 109 

CHAPTER XIII 

The New Thought. Nannie S. Bond 135 

CHAPTER XIV 

Concentration. M. E. Carter 153 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XV 

From Within Outward. Fred V. Fuller 161 

CHAPTER XVI 

Is Mental Science Enough? Susie C. Clark 171 

CHAPTER XVII 

Criticisms of the New Thought. Henry Wood 185 

CHAPTER XVIII 

The Science of Life. Annetta G. Dresser 201 

CHAPTER XIX 

The Metaphysical Movement 215 

CHAPTER XX 

The Law of the Good. E. M. Chesley 225 

CHAPTER XXI 

The New Thought Today 241 

CHAPTER XXII 

The Laws of Divine Healing. Horatio W. 
Dresser 253 

Bibliography 287 



THE SPIRIT OF THE 
NEW THOUGHT 

INTRODUCTION 

The term "New Thought" was first used 
as the name of a little periodical issued in 
Melrose, Mass., in 1894, and later by repre- 
sentatives of the rational wing of the mental- 
healing movement in general in place of the 
term formerly employed, "Mental Science." 
The theory was essentially a "new" thought 
for most of its devotees, a new attitude 
towards life, hence the term was in a sense 
appropriate. It is not an easy term to define, 
nowadays, in view of the many variations of 
therapeutic belief. But let us endeavor to 
discover the underlying principles which have 
most widely appealed to its devotees, making 
as little as possible of the variations. 

The New Thought is a theory and method 
of mental life with special reference to heal- 
ing, and the fostering of attitudes, modes of 
1 



2 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

conduct and beliefs which make for health 
and general welfare. The theory in brief is 
that man leads an essentially mental life, in- 
fluenced, shaped and controlled by anticipa- 
tions, hopes and suggestions. If one is 
downhearted, depressed and inactive, one 
meets the circumstances of life in a negative 
manner, weakening before them, inviting fail- 
ure. If one is hopeful, courageous, energetic, 
one may meet essentially the same circum- 
stances in such a way as to turn them into 
success. Thus the event which might other- 
wise be a curse, a blight, a source of misery 
and pain, is turned into one of joy and bless- 
ing. Life is largely what we make of it, 
what we bring to and call out of it. Hence 
the importance of cultivating optimistic, con- 
structive and productive beliefs. Beliefs lead 
to attitudes and these determine conduct. 

The method originated by P. P. Quimby, 
the pioneer of the movement, consists in apply- 
ing through the favorable conditions of re- 
ceptivity and mental treatment the principles 
and affirmations which are thus found to per- 
tain to life as a whole. If one is ill, suffering 
from depression, excitement, and prolonged 
pain, the resource is to become quiet, reflec- 
tive, expectant of good results, then proceed 



INTRODUCTION 3 

to put before this responsive consciousness 
the ideas and images which most positively 
suggest the desired condition. I must see 
myself in thought strong, well, and free; 
hopeful, encouraged, successful in all my un- 
dertakings; and I must instil this new con- 
sciousness into my mind in such a manner, by 
quietly yet persistently affirming it, as to pro- 
duce an impression, a change which will lead 
to subconscious and other benefits. The proof 
of the method is its use. Experience must 
reveal what explanation cannot. Thus the 
New Thought is essentially empirical. 

The next step consists in applying this 
method to the healing of others. Here is 
where the practitioner of the New Thought 
excels, in comparison with the methods em- 
ployed by those who use hypnotism or merely 
audible suggestion. Hypnotism may involve 
too great surrender to another's will, with the 
unpleasant possibility that the operator cannot 
immediately awaken his subject out of the 
hypnosis; while audible suggestion is not 
likely to be so effective as silent treatment. 
The silence and receptivity of the patient, 
while seated expectantly by the mental the- 
rapeutist, offer favorable conditions for im- 
pressing on the patient's subconsciousness the 



4 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

desired mental imagery or affirmation. The 
mental process is supplemented and strength- 
ened by the spiritual phase of the silent treat- 
ment, namely, the realization of the presence 
of God. The therapeutist's "realization" is 
the occasion or means, while the immanent 
divine power is the efficiency which secures 
the end. The realization must be uplifting, 
forceful, and persistent, in order to make due 
impression on the patient's mind. The idea 
which takes root subconsciously brings results 
according to its power to evoke similar ideas 
and associations. 

The application of these principles to life 
in general grows naturally out of the success 
attained in applying them to health. Hence 
everyone is advised to begin by learning the 
values of auto-suggestion and silent treatment. 
An affirmation like Henry Wood's statement, 
"Pain is friendly," suggests an entire attitude 
toward life. If the power behind pain is 
beneficent, let me cease all rebellion, resist- 
ance and fear; let me transfer my attention 
from the process, the sensation or pain, to the 
power behind, adopting imagery which sug- 
gests perfect health and freedom. Then let 
me think this principle to its completion as a 
practical theory of life, let me cut away all 



INTRODUCTION 5 

obstacles, inhibit all doubts, and check all 
fears. If I give myself resolutely to the spiri- 
tual ideal, I thereby change the center of 
equilibrium and any number of favorable 
consequences may follow. The new con- 
sciousness fully wrought out becomes a phil- 
osophy. 

Thus the New Thought fosters individual 
development, and leads each man to believe 
he can go to the supreme sources of life. He 
may make of his theory and method a spiritual 
gospel by turning afresh to the New Testa- 
ment to find it a guide to the efficient religious 
life. The Christ then becomes an inner or 
universal principle, accessible to every soul. 

The important point for one who would test 
the New Thought as a workable theory and 
method is this: Begin where you are, with 
any problem or need, taking it under advise- 
ment, seeking causes, the forces at work, and 
the ends to be attained. Reflect that you are 
dealing with actual life, with changing and 
promising conditions. Dwell on what you 
are, your present difficulty and needs only 
long enough to see what forces have brought 
you where you stand, then about face and 
begin to create the ideal or desirable condi- 
tions, first in thought and imagination, then 



6 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

in responsiveness and conduct. Cease to be 
anxious and fearful and learn to be calm. 
Cease to rebel and to blame others. Take the 
matter home to yourself and begin by reform- 
ing your attitude and habitual expectations. 
Create your ideal future and move steadily 
toward it, make use of every favoring 
thought, moment of silence, and quiet hour 
of reflection. 1 

The essence of the New Thought, as I 
understand it, is the oneness of life; the great 
truth, namely, that all things work together 
toward a high ideal in the kingdom of the 
Spirit. Otherwise stated, it is the truth that 
God lives with us, in every moment of exist- 
ence, in every experience, every sorrow and 
every struggle. 

This is an old, old truth. The wisest men 
of all ages have believed in the oneness of 
life. The world's spiritual leaders have taught 
that we live and move and have our being in 
the Father. Yet the New Thought aims to 
advance beyond all other schools in the en- 
deavor to realize this great truth. Others 
have argued for it as the basis of philosophic 

1 The above is reprinted from Practical Ideals, 
Boston. What follows is from an address at the 
annual convention of the Metaphysical League, 1899. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

thought, or it has been taught as a part of the 
creed of the Church. With many it is merely 
a theory; they do not take this truth home, 
so that it may become the foundation of daily 
life, applying even to the healing of disease. 

The first demand of the New Thought is 
that its followers shall dwell upon this truth 
of truths until they shall speak of it not 
merely as a theory but as a life. Only those 
who live in the Spirit — who know its peace, 
its beauty, and its love — can do the highest 
work. For there are many kinds of healing, 
from merely personal influence, affirmation, 
and thought- transfer, to spiritual healing, 
where there is no argument, no attempt to 
influence or to control, but an application of 
power — the practice of the presence of God, 
Consequently, this higher work is still largely 
an ideal; for it means entire devotion to the 
work of the Father. It is service. It is out- 
going love — fellowship. It is poise — self- 
mastery carried to that level of attainment 
where the mere presence is sufficient not alone 
to heal, but to inspire, to encourage, to uplift. 

The search for this high ideal is guided 
by the conviction that the soul is of supreme 
worth in life. It is for this that we suffer 
and strive. It is for this that we are born in 



8 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

ignorance. We are burdened so that by per- 
sonally attaining freedom we may become 
strong, perfect, beautiful. 

He who gives of the spirit, he who heals 
by his presence, must then first free his 
own soul, must understand life, and become 
broadly self-masterful, before he can help 
others to attain freedom. He must live much 
in the silence, in receptivity, seeking not so 
much to realize the Father's presence through 
his own active thought as to let the Father 
reveal himself. In those calm moments of 
companionship, when all the world of sensa- 
tion is put aside, the soul discovers that here 
and now we are environed by another king- 
dom, a greater power, a supernal presence. 
One feels instantly at home in that presence, 
as though one had wandered far in search of 
an abiding-place and found it not. One is 
fed with the food that satisfies. The soul 
expands and grows in the light of the Spirit. 
It knows no obstacles. It looks abroad upon 
life with a sense of dominion over all. It is 
free. It is joyful, with that gladdest, fullest 
joy which is too deep for words, too still and 
peaceful to betray itself excitedly. 

But how does this spiritual experience apply 
to the ills of the flesh? By thus developing 



INTRODUCTION 9 

an inner center of peace, trust, freedom, hap- 
piness. When the soul is calm it can still the 
nerves, free the mind from fear, and apply 
the power of the spirit upon the disordered 
physical organism. All growth, all change 
proceeds in this way. First, the seed or cell, 
then its development and externalization. All 
growth is from a center outward. In like 
manner all changes that are caused by thought 
take their rise in an idea. Higher yet, all 
spiritual growth results from the quickening 
of the spirit from within — at a center, at a 
point. 

The clue to the understanding of life, from 
the point of view of its spiritual oneness, is 
therefore evolution. It is because all things 
are perfected by a process of gradual trans- 
formation and attainment, everywhere reveal- 
ing the same laws, because the sorrows and 
struggles and dark places are needed, that 
we can declare that all is a spiritual Whole. 

From the physical point of view, life is 
fragmentary. The physical organism is likely 
to be attacked by external disease. It is sub- 
ject to accidents. One is more or less the 
child of fortune, of climate, of intellectual and 
social environment. Pain is called evil. Dis- 
ease is regarded as an enemy. There is no 



10 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

certainty that all is for the best. But from the 
point of view of spiritual insight into the 
unity of things, it is not some fortuitous ex- 
ternal force that governs our hardships and 
diseases. The individual, the inner man, the 
soul, is the decisive factor. Our. circum- 
stances are what the inner man attracts. 
Suffering is a sign that the remedial powers 
of Nature are seeking to restore or to regain 
harmony. All things are found to be parts 
of one system because the spirit perceives 
their meaning from within, as a whole. And 
in general we learn why our environment is 
what it is — our life is a mixture of the pleas- 
urable and the painful because all these ex- 
periences are needed as factors in our spiritual 
evolution. 

As a consequence, if one is wise, if one un- 
derstands one's self, all that comes into one's 
life may be turned to evolutionary account. 
Not that every circumstance is wholly the best 
in itself, but that it may be turned to account 
by the attitude in which it is received. Suffer- 
ing, for example, is a very great burden in 
itself, but may be met by an attitude that 
quickly lessens or overcomes it. Misfortune 
is hard to bear; also many difficulties of the 
home, business, and social life. But if wisely 



INTRODUCTION 11 

met they prove to be opportunities for the 
development of character — occasions in which 
one may grow strong by maintaining poise, 
and spiritual by manifesting love. 

The visible world is secondary. Its func- 
tion is manifestation. It is not a cause in it- 
self. It is incapable of originating diseases, 
hostile conditions, and circumstances to tor- 
ment man. All that comes from it, comes 
because it is needed in the spiritual evolution 
of things. 

In order to attain the right attitude, the 
New Thought disciple therefore seeks power 
in the silent inner world, where evolution be- 
gins. He declares that if the heart is right, 
if we first adjust ourselves, all shall be right. 
The thought realm, the realm of creative soul 
power, is the kingdom of heaven from the 
attainment of which all that is needed shall 
follow. It is the center of all peace, all poise, 
all power. For, to him who stands there, 
there is nothing to fear. He is the com- 
mander. He is the creative agent. He is the 
free man, for whom all things are cared for 
by the Father. 

In this same silent realm also arise those 
conditions that cause our misery and our dis- 
ease. They grow from a tiny seed. They 



12 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

begin in fear, distrust, despair, morbid self- 
consciousness, ill-will, undue consciousness of 
sensation, and the rest. From the first wrong- 
turning a wrong evolution results. Thus the 
physical world takes its clue from the mental. 
Physical evolution follows spiritual involu- 
tion. The physical evolution or manifesta- 
tion is real. It is surely existent. The New 
Thought makes no attempt to ignore it. But 
since the physical evolution is the outcome of 
the mental or spiritual involution, it must be 
controlled or modified by the spirit from 
within. Thus the same law that teaches the 
evolution of disease and misery shows how 
by instituting the right evolution all may be 
altered and harmony restored. 

This again points to the central idea of the 
oneness of life. In all things there is but one 
law. That law is good. It is the foundation 
principle of the universe. But, through igno- 
rance, man temporarily suffers and causes 
suffering because he knows not the univer- 
sality of the law — because he looks outside of 
his own inner world for the cause. 

Another phase of the New Tnought doc- 
trine of the oneness of life is the theory that 
all souls are united in the mental world. We 
are not detached, separated individuals affect- 



INTRODUCTION 13 

ing one another only through physical inter- 
change. We are bound together by ties of 
thought — by thought atmospheres and emo- 
tions. It is not necessary physically to speak 
or act in order to make ourselves felt in the 
world. Every thought is like a seed blown 
here and there by the wind, or carried from 
place to place. It is capable of evolving, if 
it fall in good soil. It tends to gravitate to 
its own environment. It is likely to affect 
people for good or for ill. It is transmitted 
out and around us with a rapidity surpassing 
that of waves of sound or light. Conse- 
quently, our thoughts must be guarded — that 
we send out only the good, the hopeful, and 
true. 

But by the same law of thought interchange 
that sometimes works for ill we may accom- 
plish unmeasured good. The thought-organ- 
ism is here, ready to serve us; it is for us to 
use that organism in the consciousness of what 
our spiritual fellowship means — the spiritual 
unity of life. Thus the process is essentially 
soul cooperation. It is, first, recognition on 
the part of the helper or healer of his own 
oneness with the Spirit of life ; then the reali- 
zation of the patient's oneness with the same 
Source; and, finally, active cooperation with 



14 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the Spirit, by whose power health and peace 
are to be restored. There is surely no true 
unity but this. There is no other wholly com- 
mon ground for fellowship. In the Spirit all 
men are one; it is in the outer life, in their 
arguments, that they are inharmonious. They 
all came out from the one Source. In reality 
they are always at one there. Consciously or 
unconsciously, they are living the same life. 
This deep undercurrent must then be brought 
more and more to the surface, that the same 
beautiful law may regulate our physical and 
social life. It is this thought that I would 
emphasize above all others as to one to bear 
away with us — the thought of the deep-lying 
Spirit of life, welling up in us all, uniting us 
all, bearing us ceaselessly forward to perfec- 
tion — to the freedom of the soul. 

In all times of need or trouble, when dis- 
turbing experiences come, when the way is 
not clear, pause for a time, break connection 
with the troublesome thought, and retire to 
the haven of the Spirit — the home of rest and 
peace. Send your thoughts out into the great 
universe until you feel the one Life eternally 
and inimitably extended there. Repose in it. 
Confide your problems to it. Become recep- 
tive and listen. Expand to the proportions 



INTRODUCTION 15 

of its high ideal for you. Rejoice in its pres- 
ence, in the privileges you possess in seeking 
it. Then again ask and listen. 

When its moving comes, follow wherever 
it leads and trust the outcome. Or if no 
prompting comes, at least bear away with you 
the consciousness of its presence, of your one- 
ness with it, of the joy and peace that came 
when you enlarged your thought to become 
receptive. This is the essence of it all; this 
is the spirit. To apprehend this essence and 
to feel this spirit is to possess a priceless gift 
of power and helpfulness. This is the spirit 
of the New Thought, the glad tidings it de- 
clares to the world — the great revelation of 
spiritual unity and beneficent evolution by the 
heeding of which not only disease shall cease, 
but war and unhappiness. It is another form 
of the gospel of the Christ. It is a new inter- 
pretation of the evangel of love. 



A RATIONAL AND POSITIVE 
SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 

BY HENRY WOOD 

[Mr. Wood was for twenty years one of the lead- 
ing authors and promoters of the New Thought 
movement, and was actively identified with the Meta- 
physical Club of Boston, founded 1895. He is best 
known by such books as Ideal Suggestion Through 
Mental Photography, and New Thought Simplified. 
The following is from an address at the first annual 
convention of the International Metaphysical League, 
held in Boston, Oct. 24-26, 1899.] 

The movement which in a broad way is 
represented by this convention will present 
itself in a variety of aspects to different ob- 
servers. Even could we clearly define it in 
its essence, its validity would yet depend upon 
the personal point of view. Whether called 
the New Thought, the Metaphysical Move- 
ment, Practical Idealism, or by some other 
name, it will be variously rated by the ma- 
jority as intangible speculation or illogical as- 
sumption, while to the lesser number who have 
17 



18 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

recognized its truth, scope, and usefulness, its 
value can hardly be exaggerated. 

In the twenty minutes at my disposal, I shall 
try to interpret concisely its motive and pur- 
pose. I wish to emphasize its rationality and 
spirituality. Doubtless there are those pres- 
ent who come as lookers-on, as well as those 
who are already identified with the movement. 
Let me first offer a few suggestions to those 
who may term themselves outsiders, in an 
attempt to present simply the rationality of 
the new movement. We call it new, while 
in a deep sense no truth is new. But eternal 
and immutable principles are constantly re- 
ceiving fresh application and adaptation. A 
thousand years ago, electricity was waiting 
to do its part in the operation of trolley-cars ; 
but a new movement was required, simply of 
human cooperation. Innumerable beneficent 
laws of undreamed potency — physical, psy- 
chical, and spiritual — are still waiting, we 
might almost say impatiently, for recognition. 
Could we touch them with the wand of human 
cooperation they would spring from latency 
into wonderful concrete activity. We may 
almost imagine Truth, personified, upon 
bended knee, beseeching us to receive her 
welcome blessing. 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 19 

How we have unwittingly limited the realm 
of orderly law! Conventional science, while 
of late theoretically admitting its universality, 
still has eyes for little beyond the physical 
realm. A few investigators, however, are en- 
gaged in tracing the lines of truth as they 
run through the realm of psychology. But 
these studies are confined mainly to the specu- 
lative tests and phenomena of institutional 
laboratories, with little or no attempt to ap- 
ply them to practical human welfare. A few 
educators have attempted something more 
useful, by turning the light of psychology 
upon their own professional work. But any 
earnest recognition and helpful application of 
psychical and spiritual law in thought-educa- 
tion, the systematic use of ideals, and other 
helpful exercises in the sphere of mind, are 
yet limited to the unconventional minority. 

The materialism of the age has illustration 
in the popular degradation of the noble term 
"metaphysical," which simply means above or 
beyond the physical. When with a single 
thrust one wishes to extinguish the argument 
of an opponent, he usually retorts, "mere 
metaphysical speculation." 

The moment we can convince the scientific 
world that the continuity of cause and effect 



20 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

is unbroken through the three zones of man's 
nature, and that the higher is normally su- 
preme, thus forming a scientific basis for our 
principles, we shall graduate from any suspi- 
cion of crankiness and be tolerated as sane 
and regular. Then — not long hence — people 
will be ready to avow the higher philosophy, 
with the significant comment — "Yes; we al- 
ways thought so!" 

It must be shown that faith, instead of be- 
ing a blind, expectant emotion, has a per- 
fectly logical foundation; that thought, in its 
purpose, control, and effects, is amenable to 
intelligible law; and that a mixture of cer- 
tain ingredients in the mental compound is 
as sure of a legitimate result as is that of 
material substances in the chemist's labora- 
tory. It must be made evident that all dis- 
appointment in the practical demonstration of 
our principles is not in the least due to the 
uncertainty of their trend, but to local and 
personal limitations in the hospitality of their 
reception. 

The scientific exactitude of the New 
Thought, to a large class of minds, has been 
obscured by the disproportionate prominence 
that has been given to its so-called religious 
side. The term religion has been so long used 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 21 

to define some particular system, outside of 
applied moral and spiritual law, that it is not 
easy to rescue and broaden it. 

The real touchstone of truth for any phi- 
losophy or system is: Does it fit the consti- 
tution, needs, and capacity of man? Does it 
nourish, harmonize, and develop his threefold 
nature? Any guidance that can most effec- 
tively teach him the laws of his own being; 
refine and spiritualize his inner life and 
forces; aid his higher nature to maintain 
orderly rule over that which should be subor- 
dinate; and unfold and bring into manifesta- 
tion the latent divinity within him — must be 
beneficent and normal. 

The reasonable position of the New 
Thought has been largely overlooked. It is 
evolutionary in its spirit, quiet in its methods, 
and to a great degree operative without ob- 
servation. It depends more upon simple 
statements of truth than upon external organi- 
zation. Its silent inner life is penetrating and 
permeating existing churches, though it or- 
ganizes few of its own. It is no surface 
affair, for "still waters run deep." These are 
some of the reasons why it is not more talked 
about. 

Perhaps, to the average man, the therapeu- 



22 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

tic phase of the New Thought has awakened 
the most interest. When understood, the in- 
telligent application of the laws and forces of 
mind for the eradication of mental and phys- 
ical ills contains no element of magic, super- 
naturalism, or strangeness. Modern material- 
ism has carelessly disregarded the logic of the 
innumerable historic straws that point to the 
fact that the body is the composite outcome 
and expression of past mental beliefs and 
activities. All the so-called miracles of heal- 
ing with which history is crowded are due 
to the conscious or unconscious use of a law 
that can be defined and followed. It savors 
of an ignorant, superstitious, or blindly skep- 
tical bias, either to deny their validity on the 
one hand, or on the other to attribute them 
to a supernatural interruption of the moral 
order. True, it may be a baseless supersti- 
tion that starts the mental forces into opera- 
tion, or even a fetish that awakens the 
activity of a powerful molding faith. The 
momentum of a stone that rolls down hill is 
the same whether it was started by accident 
or design. . . . 

How shall faith be invoked? The ignorant 
and superstitious may awaken it, though it is 
always uncertain, by resorting to some shrine, 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 23 

holy relic, priest, or in former time to some 
king who was supposed to embody a divine 
prerogative, to be touched; but how shall one 
who is intelligent, and believes the world is 
governed by orderly law, command the desired 
power ? Has the Creator put a premium upon 
ignorance and superstition? Are calm reason 
and knowledge a positive disadvantage to the 
exercise of a healing faith? Such a conclu- 
sion is unthinkable. We then come to the 
necessity of an intelligent and scientific basis 
for the saving power. The useful supersti- 
tion, even though it be strong to-day, may be 
dispelled by to-morrow. Only truth can have 
any guarantee of permanent availability. The 
definition of faith must be broadened. If 
"thy faith" is to make thee whole, it must lay 
hold upon eternal principles, and to lay hold 
of them it must know how to find them. It 
must be too wise to expect a capricious inter- 
vention, on the divine part, in an economy 
already perfect. No! God's work is fully 
complete, and human conformity is all that is 
lacking. How, then, if we are above the plane 
of superstition, can we logically cooperate 
with the overcoming force ? 

The power is already latent in every hu- 
man soul. Through systematic thought-con- 



24 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

centration it may be unfolded into dominant 
activity in the consciousness. By law, we 
become or grow like our ruling ideal. We 
are to regulate the physiological processes by 
a mental renewing that will be back of them; 
this, not by any sudden or strained effort, 
but by cultivated growth. Instead of vainly 
dwelling on the surface of effects, we must 
take hold of underlying causation. We are 
souls having bodies, not bodies having souls. 

Shall the man be in bondage to the handful 
of dust he has molded and erected into tem- 
porary shape, or shall he affirm lawful supe- 
riority and rule? Shall the abounding and 
universal divine Life be consciously received 
and cooperated with, or shall it be barred out 
through materialism and a false sense of sep- 
aration? If the body be subordinate and ex- 
pressive, the claims of mind or man must be 
advanced to the desired ideal as potentially 
present, here and now. Then, through the 
intricate processes already noted, the physical 
subordinate will correspond and index the 
same. Shall the potter rule the clay, or the 
clay the potter? 

Made as we are in the image of God, and 
equipped by well-ordered law to mold and out- 
picture the higher prerogatives of the soul, 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 25 

how have we lingered in a worse than Egyp- 
tian bondage to sense and matter! However, 
matter, so called, is good, and only misplace- 
ment makes it otherwise. But the law of 
gravitation is no more normal and constant 
than are the corresponding laws of mind and 
spirit, which are written in our constitution 
and awaiting our cooperation. 

Man, wittingly or unwittingly, creates his 
own conditions. Health or disease, happiness 
or misery, life or death, and heaven or hell 
— all primarily growths in the human con- 
sciousness — are respectively brought into ac- 
tive expression through well-ascertained law. 
When the great Adamic, or evolutionary, step 
was taken from animality and instinct into 
the realm of reason and recognition of the 
moral order, man became a virtual creator. 
His mind is his kingdom, and he peoples it 
with subjects. Through their subjective se- 
lection and molding, the objective world also 
falls into line and receives corresponding 
color, form, and quality. 

Let me, in closing, offer one or two sug- 
gestions, more especially to those already in 
the New Thought; for we all want one an- 
other's point of view. What will best pro- 
mote the spread of the Truth? It seems to 



26 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

me, singleness of aim. We need to be free 
from diffusive beguilements and entangling 
alliances. Avoid side issues and by-paths. 
Though rational, the New Thought is distinc- 
tively spiritual. It does not deal directly 
with surface phenomena, but with their inner 
springs of causation. I believe the danger 
that most threatens the New Thought to-day 
is its more or less intimate amalgamation with 
other reforms, whether real or theoretical, 
upon lower planes. If we scatter our ener- 
gies in the attempted repression of mere ef- 
fects, the true momentum of the movement 
will be lessened or lost. Without uttering a 
word pro or con concerning political social- 
ism, or theoretical land systems, tax systems, 
money systems, labor systems, and other po- 
litical questions, I believe the New Thought 
should be kept above and distinct. A true 
moral socialism will result from a free spir- 
itual individualism. We have before us an 
object-lesson in the spread of one system, 
which we believe contains a great basic truth, 
even though associated with certain dogmatic 
extremes. Whence its great momentum? The 
secret is, it has never lost itself in the endless 
mazes of materialism. 1 As individuals, and in 

1 Mr. Wood here refers to Christian Science. 



SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 27 

other relations, we may take such positions 
as we please; but do not let us overload, to 
the sinking point, a spiritual philosophy whose 
message humanity is waiting to hear. The 
external face of society, like the human coun- 
tenance, is but the exact expression of the in- 
ner forces. Better the ruddy glow upon the 
cheeks when it comes from within, than a 
coating of cosmetics from without. 

The New Thought believes in the potency 
of God and Law, and that an aggressive pes- 
simism, emphasizing the evil of human con- 
ditions, is unscientific and harmful, even when 
well meant. The seat of man's inharmony 
and unhappiness lies deeper. Even were ex- 
ternal conditions perfect, a divine restlessness 
would possess him until he found God to be 
within and without — All in all. . . . 



II 

THE ABUNDANT LIFE 

BY SARAH J. FARMER 

[Miss Farmer, well known as the founder of the 
Green Acre Conferences, Eliot, Maine, established 
1894, gave the mental-healing movement a prominent 
place in the early years. The following is from an 
address in which she interpreted the New Thought 
in her own terms.] 

"I am come that they might have life, and 
that they might have it more abundantly." 

Down through the ages these words have 
run like a joy-bell. We have heard them. 
We have repeated them again and again. To- 
day they sound in our ears and bring a new 
revelation. We call it the New Thought, but 
the only thought in the universe is God, "the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 

What is the newness about which we talk 
like children? 

This, too, is answered in the old, familiar 
words — "newness of life." It is the new rev- 
elation that comes to the individual when for 
the first time there flashes in upon him the 
meaning of the Incarnation — the Power that 
29 



30 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

worketh in us. We hold our breath as the 
mysterious words are opened to our rapt gaze 
— "that ye might be filled with all the fulness 
of the Godhead, bodily." What! — we who 
have thought ourselves "weak worms of the 
dust," are we called to this high goal? With 
a humility that sends us to our knees, but 
with a joy that the world never before gave 
us — a joy too deep for words — the conviction 
fills our being that nothing less than the at- 
tainment of this birthright can satisfy the im- 
mortal soul. 

In this moment a voice breaks the silence: 
"Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the 
heart never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee." 
St. Augustine walked in this Path, pointed out 
by sages of old, and found it the path of peace. 
We, too, must find it; but how? We have 
put such a halo about the head of the one who 
came to be to us "the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life," that our eyes have been blinded 
and we have groped our way in darkness, 
sometimes crying out with Siddartha — 

"I would not let one cry 
Whom I could save ! How can it be that Brahm 
Would make a world, and keep it miserable, 
Since, if all powerful, he leaves it so, 
He is not good, and if not powerful 
He is not God?" 



THE ABUNDANT LIFE 31 

In this maze of doubt, how can we find our 
way? By changing our thinking. "Repent, 
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," 
was the warning cry of one in the wilderness. 
It had been to him a wilderness — he had found 
it the kingdom of heaven; and his warning 
cry, "Repent!" means (literally translated) 
"Change your thinking!" You think life a 
vale of tears, where only misery and trouble 
reign; change your thinking and you will 
know it to be the kingdom of heaven, where 
love, peace, and joy abound. This is what 
the phrase New Thought means. It is simply 
putting ourselves in new relation to the world 
about us by changing our thought concerning 
it. The moment that we begin to conceive 
of the creative power of thought, the abun- 
dant Life has consciously begun in us. It 
was always there, for it is the only Life ; but 
while we were unconscious of it we missed 
its joy. Now we know that we alone are re- 
sponsible for our environment, our attitude of 
mind, our misery or peace. We are not creat- 
ures of circumstance; we are creators, "heirs 
of God and joint heirs with Christ." In this 
moment of revelation our relation to Him 
changes. Hitherto we have followed Him 
afar off, worshiping Him with a blind faith 



32 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

that sometimes carried us to mountain-tops 
of revelation and sometimes left us in valleys 
of despair. 

Now, all is changed. Jesus, who grasped 
this truth and through overcoming attained 
his birthright of the Son of God, becomes to 
us a Savior in very deed and truth — a media- 
tor between this vision of God to which we 
are called and the narrow life of self that we 
have known. Though fashioned in the form 
of man, He thought it "not robbery to be 
equal with God." With fear and trembling, 
we listen to His words with a new spirit of 
interpretation and find that He calls us to 
manifest not only the power of the indwell- 
ing God that He showed to the world, but to 
do "even greater" things. Men and women 
who listen, ask yourselves this question : Can 
it be possible that it has taken Christianity 
nineteen hundred years to come to the reali- 
zation that we who take upon ourselves the 
name of Christ are called to reach the plane 
of life that Jesus of Nazareth reached, and 
to do the works that He did before the fulness 
of time can come in which He can reveal the 
"other things" that even then He had to tell 
but could not because His disciples could not 
bear them? 



THE ABUNDANT LIFE 33 

The whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in birth, waiting for the manifestation of the 
Sons of God — waiting for you and me to turn 
from seeking after the things of self and to 
give ourselves in gladness of heart, first to 
realizing within ourselves the fruits of the 
abundant Life, and then to bestowing it upon 
others by simply being. Said Carlyle: 

"The ideal is in thyself; the impediment, too, is 
in thyself; thy condition is but the stuff thou art 
to shape that same ideal out of. . . .0 thou that 
pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual and criest 
bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule 
and create, know this of a truth: The thing thou 
seekest is already within thee, 'here or nowhere, 
couldst thou only see it!'" 

We give unto others only that which Emer- 
son says we cannot give — that which emanates 
from us. To speak the word that shall impart 
the abundant Life we must consciously be that 
Life. We must say with Paul — who caught 
the secret that Jesus sought in vain to impart 
to His disciples, and that He could teach them 
only by going away from them — "It is no 
longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in 
me." Did the thought ever come to you that 
Jesus took those words upon His lips when 
He said? — "The words that ye hear me speak 



34 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

and the deeds that ye see me do are not mine, 
but the Father's who dwelleth in me." That 
He, too, must overcome the temptations of the 
Son of Man before he could consciously be- 
come the Son of God, to whom all power is 
given in heaven and earth? Tempted at all 
points like as we are, and yet without sin, 
through overcoming he rose in his conscious- 
ness, step by step, toward union with his 
Father, until at last the full glory burst upon 
Him and men hid their faces, unable to bear 
its radiant effulgence. 

In all ages of the past, thousands of years 
before the birth of Jesus, great souls caught 
the vision of the Christ and tried to attain 
unto it by making the choice between "the 
way of greatness or the way of good," and 
by treading the paths of life "with patient, 
stainless feet." In this way Siddartha be- 
came the Buddha. A kingdom was not too 
great a price for him to pay for this "pearl 
of great price" — the abundant Life. . . . 

Six hundred years later Jesus showed us a 
harder task — to be "in the world, and not of 
it" ; to hold wealth as a wise steward and ad- 
minister it for the good of humanity, not for 
the gratification of self. 

There were times in the life of Jesus when 



THE ABUNDANT LIFE 35 

he went apart to the mountains or the desert 
and spent whole nights in prayer, not as an 
example for us to follow, but because the 
world-thought weighed him down so utterly 
that only by going apart into the silence could 
He keep His conscious connection with the 
Father, which was the source of His power 
and the strength that enabled Him to finish 
the work His Father had given Him to 
do. . . . 

How shall the hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness that bring us here be satisfied ? Does 
it seem too great for you? Too wonderful? 
You cannot attain unto it? "Come unto Me, 
all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest." What is rest? Listen 
to Henry Drummond, of our own day, who 
not only found it himself but imparted the 
secret to others, especially to young men: 

"It is the mind at leisure from itself. It is the 
perfect poise of the soul; the absolute adjustment of 
the inward man to the stress of all outward things; 
the preparedness against every emergency; the sta- 
bility of assured convictions; the eternal calm of an 
invulnerable faith; the repose of a heart set deep 
in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with 
Browning, 'God's in his heaven, all's right with the 
world.'" 



36 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

How can we attain such faith ? By taking 
our mind from such securities as houses, lands, 
stocks, bonds, safety- vaults, banks, and even 
friends, and, placing it upon Him whose these 
are. 

The Vedas say, "Those who think on Me, 
with love and devotion in their hearts, find 
all that they need at their very door, brought 
by myself" [literally, on my shoulders]. Did 
you ever fully realize what it means to be God's 
"shoulders" to the saint who trusts to His 
providing care; or to be the hands by which 
He leads home some wandering child ; or to be 
His feet to carry to those who know Him not 
the gospel of peace? If not, go home to the 
silence of your own room. Enter the closet 
of your own soul, and pray to the Father to 
reveal himself in you. Prayer is the ladder 
by which we climb to heights of conscious 
being where our prayer is answered before it 
is uttered. "Only in meditation the Mystery 
speaks to us." 



Ill 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEW 
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 

BY EGBERT MORSE CHESLEY, A.M. 

[Mr. Chesley was a pioneer devotee of the New 
Thought in Boston. Well informed in the history 
of philosophy, he saw in the central principles of the 
movement a "new metaphysical" statement of the 
best idealism of the past. Since the pioneer days 
he has taught philosophy in a liberal theological 
school and practised spiritual healing. The follow- 
ing is from an address before the Metaphysical 
Club, Boston, 1898.] 

In the first place, the New Metaphysical 
Movement stands for the deeper realities of 
the universe, the things which are eternal, the 
things which are above and beyond the outer 
and phenomenal realm. The word metaphys- 
ics does not now signify, as it did among the 
followers of Aristotle, that which comes after 
physics. It has, in the history of philosophy, 
37 



38 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

acquired a far profounder meaning. It sig- 
nifies, and this meaning is now well recog- 
nized among thinkers, the science of real be- 
ing, as distinguished from mere changeable, 
phenomenal being. It signifies ontology, the 
science of that which eternally is, as distin- 
guished from that which merely appears in 
outer, temporary manifestation. The New 
Metaphysical Movement, therefore, concerns 
itself with absolute truth, as distinguished 
from relative truth. And it especially con- 
cerns itself with the practical application of 
that absolute Truth of Being in all the affairs 
of our daily and hourly living. It calls men 
back to a recognition of the grand and noume- 
nal verities, the things which pertain to their 
higher rational and eternal natures. 

It is a grand movement of the Spirit. It 
emphasizes God as the one only Absolute 
Reality. It emphasizes the kingdom of God 
to be established on this earth of ours, here 
and now. It calls men back to the actual, prac- 
tical recognition of that sublime declaration of 
the Apostle Paul, "In him we live and move 
and have our being." The New Thought 
Movement does not merely hold this mighty 
spiritual truth as a beautiful intellectual the- 
ory to be talked about and wondered over and 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 39 

logically dissected; but it bends all its ener- 
gies to the living this great fact of our life in 
God. Since we do indeed live and move and 
have our being in the one Infinite Ocean of 
the Divine Life, since we are rays of the one 
Eternal Logos and are in our inmost, essen- 
tial being, of the same divine substance, the 
New Philosophy of Health believes in recog- 
nizing, using, claiming, this stupendous truth. 
Our true and Higher Self, then, is absolute 
in its nature. It is without sin, without weak- 
ness, without disease, without death. Let the 
Immortal Ego know and claim its divine in- 
heritance here and now. Let it claim its 
freedom, its wholeness, its peace, its power, its 
poise. Let us continue to think the thoughts 
of love and truth and wisdom, as befits our 
royal birthright. And that splendid affirma- 
tion of the truth of our being, that under- 
standing and that life, shall revolutionize our 
whole psychical and physical nature and trans- 
form gradually our whole environment. It 
shall quicken all the vital energies of the 
body; it shall establish health and sanity on 
firm, rational and enduring foundations. 

The New Metaphysical Movement accepts 
the far-reaching and transcendent truth de- 
clared by Jesus, the world's greatest spiritual 



40 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

teacher, as set forth in the sixth chapter of the 
Gospel of Matthew. I allude to the truth of 
perfect faith in God, the truth that God is 
our All-Sufficiency in all things — a truth re- 
quiring great renunciation of a personal, self- 
ish will. The wisdom of Jesus is so deep, 
so high, so metaphysical in this teaching of 
perfect dependence on the Good Law that the 
Christian world has in large part failed to 
understand him, failed to appreciate the 
beauty and the richness of his philosophy of 
life. The professed disciples of the Master 
have tacitly questioned his good judgment in 
this regard, and have too often slurred over 
this simple part of his teaching as impracti- 
cal, fanciful, and forsooth, unscientific. As 
though empirical science could judge of the 
divine truths of the Spirit! Consequently 
they have never given themselves unreserv- 
edly to this great Law of the Good, this 
eternal law of all true life; they have not 
really believed in it; they have not complied 
with its conditions ; and so they have not been 
able to prove its beneficent working. Instead 
of seeking that divine freedom which comes 
through obedience, they have fallen back too 
often into the mire of materialism and worldly 
doubt. The New Philosophy of Health is 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 41 

earnestly endeavoring to resurrect this sublime 
doctrine of our entire dependence on God, — 
this doctrine which abolishes the demon of 
fear, worry and anxiety, and which restores 
to the soul its true life and health and free- 
dom in a universe of Good. If God is omni- 
present, omniscient and omnipotent, it is high 
time we awoke to a more practical recogni- 
tion of the plain and simple facts. "Do not 
cumber yourself," says Emerson, "with fruit- 
less pains to mend and remedy remote ef- 
fects ; make first the soul erect, and all things 
will go well." That is, put the soul in right 
and true relations with the eternal reality of 
things, and all will go well. This is the exact, 
practical teaching of the New Metaphysics. 

The New Thought Movement is a much 
needed revival of genuine, practical Chris- 
tianity. The finer and pro founder truths of 
the Christian religion have been buried away 
under the ignorance and scepticism, the for- 
malism and materialism of centuries of unde- 
velopment. The Light which lighteth every 
man coming into the world is beginning to 
shine out anew. The New Thought Move- 
ment is in the order of Divine providence. It 
has of course its crudities, its over-statements, 
its illogical and uncultured adherents, even 



42 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

its perversions of fundamental truth. But all 
these things and more has Christianity itself 
had to contend with. These errors will drop 
away as the race evolves. The heart of the 
Metaphysical Movement is good and sound 
and strong. It is a genuine fulfilment of that 
great prophetic declaration of Jesus that he 
had many more things to communicate to the 
world, but it was not ready to receive them; 
but that when the Spirit of Truth should 
come, it would lead the world into all the 
truth — that is, gradually, as its needs require. 
The New Thought Movement I take to be 
one of these grand revelations of the Eternal 
Logos, ever working in human history. And 
the new philosophy has come to stay, for it 
is founded upon a bed-rock of Divine reality. 
It has a certain eternal significance. It really 
means the regeneration and transformation of 
the whole life of a man — a work which goes 
on unceasingly with all the future progress 
of the soul. 

The glory of the New Philosophy, its one 
preeminent virtue, is its insistence on the 
practical applicability of the great and divine 
truths of the Spirit here and now. Not 
theory — we have too much of that — but life 
and life more abundant, that is, its unceasing 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 43 

claim, that is its perennial aspiration. Jesus 
went about teaching Divine truth. He also 
went about healing the bodies of the sick. 
The two things are inseparable. The Divine 
truth thoroughly lived, realized, believed it, 
has power to heal the ills of the body as well 
as the ills of the soul. To affirm the one and 
deny the possibility of the other is to my mind 
a perversion of the teaching of Jesus. I take 
it to be disloyalty to the truth of the Christian 
religion in its wholeness. Mind and body 
constitute a unit. The physical is a continu- 
ous expression of the mental and the spiritual 
life. The healing of the diseases of the body 
through the power of mind is not done in 
any supernatural way, but in strict accordance 
with the divinely natural laws of the higher 
spiritual order. The call to all the churches 
of to-day is : back to the teaching of the Mas- 
ter; back to the plainest, the simplest, the 
most elementary truths of the Spirit. "And 
the glory which thou, O Father, hast given 
unto me, I have given unto them." "And the 
things that I do, they shall do also, and 
greater things than these shall they do." We 
are not only "heirs of God" — his riches, his 
wisdom, and his power — but we are "fellow- 
heirs with Christ." 



44 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

The New Philosophy of Health emphasizes 
the eternal reality of the spirit and the essen- 
tial unreality of matter. For this it has been 
criticized by those who do not know. But in 
this doctrine of Idealism it has the support 
and companionship of the greatest and wisest 
thinkers of all time. In this elect company 
we find the ancient and venerable Vedanta 
philosophy of India. Here we find the mod- 
ern German transcendental philosophy — the 
richest and ripest product of our country — 
represented by Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and 
Hegel. Here we find Parmenides, Plato and 
Plotinus. Here we find Spinoza, Berkeley, 
Leibnitz and Emerson. To this goal now 
rapidly tends all modern physical science. 
For modern science teaches that the cells, and 
even the ultimate atoms, of the body are 
psychical in their nature, in other words, are 
living intelligences. It resolves the whole 
eternal physical world into a supersensible 
cosmic ether, filled with innumerable vortex- 
motion etheric atoms. It is now dimly dis- 
cerning, through its most advanced repre- 
sentatives, that all matter is but a mode of 
motion, or lower vibration of Spirit. It even 
contends, with Mr. Herbert Spencer and 
many others, that the whole material uni- 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 45 

verse, with all its splendid laws and processes, 
is but a vast, orderly and persistent system of 
mental impressions, or vivid states of con- 
sciousness, wrought in our minds by that one 
absolute Reality, the Infinite and Unknowable 
Power which men call God. So it is always. 
The slow-moving, cautious, skeptical, scien- 
tific intellect ultimately confirms, in its own 
empirical way, the high intuitions of a more 
spiritual metaphysical philosophy. 

For some time past I have had occasion to 
follow the literature of the New Thought 
pretty closely and to watch its progress. 1 I 
find that it is more and more becoming a great 
and widespread movement in the interests of 
the higher spiritual life, in the interests of a 
truer and deeper philosophy of the whole 
nature of man. The New Metaphysics em- 
phasizes the central truths taught by the seers 
and saviors of our race — the life of God in 
the soul of man, the divinity of human na- 
ture, the common brotherhood of the children 
of God, the eternal reality of the Good. The 
bodily healing is coming to be regarded as 
secondary, the growth and formation of char- 

1 Mr. Chesley was one of the pioneer devotees of 
the movement in Boston, when it was known as 
Mental Science. 



46 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

acter primary and all-important. Doubtless 
the New Thought Movement will fulfill its 
high aims and promises in this regard more 
and more perfectly in the ever-advancing 
order of human evolution. 



IV 

THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 

BY J. W. WINKLEY, M.D. 

[Dr. Winkley, formerly a Unitarian minister, and 
at one time a student of Christian Science, was the 
leader in establishing conferences, in Boston, on 
"Mental Science," as the New Thought was then 
called, also in gathering the group of Sunday wor- 
shipers who organized the Church of the Divine 
Unity, in 1886. Later he was associated with The 
Mental Healing Monthly, the first New Thought 
periodical, and was a prime mover in establishing 
the Metaphysical Club. His last service to the cause 
he loved so well was the editing and publishing of 
Practical Ideals, a periodical devoted to New 
Thought interests.] 

It is proposed to discuss here the question 
so often raised — Is this healing of our day by 
mental or spiritual means Christian ? The 
scientific man may ask very naturally, Can 
it be considered scientifically? The inquiries 
are also often made: Is it practical? Is it 
right morally? So the Christian Church may 

47 



48 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

very properly ask, Does it belong to Chris- 
tianity? Has it the sanction and authority of 
Christ? The scientific character of the heal- 
ing can be left to the scientists. The question 
of the practicality and the beneficence of the 
healing may be known "by its fruits." To 
determine, however, whether or not the heal- 
ing is Christian, one must decide what Jesus 
Christ himself taught — what he, as its author, 
gave to the world as Christianity. Christians 
of every name and denomination will agree, of 
course, that his teaching, commands, and pre- 
cepts ; his practice, life, and example, to- 
gether make up Christianity. 

What, then, is Christianity as Jesus gave it 
in his teaching, acts, and life? One thing is 
plain — Jesus taught or preached his word of 
truth. But another fact is equally plain — he 
did what are called "works" in the language 
of the New Testament, or healing in the lan- 
guage of to-day. The Christ, in fact, gave 
himself largely, as the gospel records tell us, 
to "healing all manner of sickness and all 
manner of disease among the people" during 
his public life ; indeed, he laid great stress 
upon these works as an essential part of his 
mission. They were very prominent in the 
ministry of Jesus. They made up, with his 



THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 49 

preaching, his whole public work. In fact, he 
did nothing else. Just consider the note- 
worthy fact: he founded no institutions, 
asylums, or hospitals; organized no charities, 
founded no religious orders or societies of any 
kind. He did not even establish a church ; 
nor did he leave directions for the formation 
of any of these. But he did go about "doing 
good," doing healing — the works of Him that 
sent him. Further, what were his commands 
to his followers? Surely it is safe to affirm 
that in Christ's instructions to his disciples he 
made the ministry of healing more prominent 
if anything than the ministry of preaching. 
He charged them, when he commissioned and 
sent them forth, to "heal the sick." This was 
a direct, plain, emphatic command given to 
his followers of all times. It cannot be denied 
that Jesus urged and emphasized the gospel 
works no loss positively than the gospel 
word. 

Now, if these conclusions are correct, it 
becomes of interest and moment to inquire 
whether these important instructions of the 
Master have been obeyed. Has the Christian 
Church as a body, have the ministers of the 
Church generally, carried out, or are they now 
carrying out, the full commands of Christ if 



50 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

they neglect to do the works? Surely, the 
answer to this question must be in the main 
a negative one. Who, then, are fulfilling — 
who are practising this part of Christianity? 
It seems certain that no unprejudiced person 
will deny that the doers of the works to-day, 
including all sections of them — the so-called 
Faith-curists, Mind-curers, Christian Scien- 
tists, mental healers, etc. — in their way and 
according to their light, have tried and are 
trying sincerely, honestly, earnestly to obey 
the command of the great Physician. These 
healers by spiritual means have their limita- 
tions ; they may fall short in their efforts 
often ; their healing may not be equal or even 
exactly to the Master's. But we submit that, 
inasmuch as they have earnestly and in good 
faith endeavored to obey his command to do 
the works, they are entitled to stand as his 
true followers, and that their works of heal- 
ing are Christian indeed. Yet we have heard 
Christian ministers characterize as impiety, 
even blasphemy, their endeavor to follow in 
the footsteps and do the behests of the great 
Teacher. 

It is well to ask here why it is that the 
Christian Church in the main — why the Chris- 
tian clergy as a body — all these centuries past 



THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 51 

have ignored the Master's command, and ne- 
glected to do the works he enjoined. Is it 
because the works were of no importance in 
their eyes, of no essential value, and that 
therefore there was no need of their con- 
tinuance? Then why did Jesus lay so great 
stress upon them? This would clearly indi- 
cate that he himself deemed them of vital im- 
portance, of even transcendent worth. He de- 
voted to the doing of them almost his whole 
ministry; and that was largely what he set 
his disciples about, and directed them to do 
in their future ministry. 

Is it not possible that some great truths 
or principles or laws were disclosed by the 
works — were thereby illustrated and en- 
forced; truths, principles, or laws, moral and 
spiritual, of far-reaching and transcendent 
import, far above and beyond all mere physi- 
cal healing or cure of any bodily disease? It 
does certainly appear so. And those who 
have essayed to do works of healing in our 
day have evidently caught a glimpse of those 
wondrous revealings — have learned some- 
thing of their deep significance and of their 
inestimable value. What are those revela- 
tions ? 

First of all, perhaps, the healing brings 



52 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

home forcibly to the mind as indeed a fact 
that which has ever gladdened the hearts of 
religious people to find reason to believe and 
evidence to prove, namely, what is often at- 
tempted to express by the words "the su- 
premacy of the Spirit," which should surely 
find appreciation with us all in these days of 
gross materialism. All this healing, done by 
immaterial or spiritual means, showing the 
power of the mind over the body, telling of 
the omnipotence of spirit over all things, is 
wholly against the prevalent doctrines of 
materialism, and on the side of the highest 
spiritual philosophy. 

Next, is it not plain from the accounts in 
the Gospels that Jesus thought the works made 
manifest the existence and power of the In- 
finite Spirit and were a revelation indeed of 
God, the Father? In fact he said so again 
and again. He apparently emphasized the 
works for one reason as tangible evidence that 
the infinite One, and He alone, is the real 
Healer of disease — the one and only healing 
Power; that He is ever ready and lovingly 
desirous to restore and save His children from 
their bodily infirmities, as He is to remedy, 
by the same gracious power, their ills of mind 
and heart and soul. And so again to-day the 



THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 53 

existence, the reality of God, and withal a 
higher conception of Him, are thus impressed 
upon the mind ; His immanence upon the con- 
sciousness; yea, His goodness and His love 
are made manifest by His life-giving and re- 
storative power in the healing. 

Again, it is the united testimony, probably, 
of those engaged in the practical healing, as 
well as of all subjects of the cure, that they 
gain by it a new estimate of man. They see 
or experience the power of the spirit over the 
body. That points unmistakably to man's 
other and higher spiritual powers and poten- 
tialities, which only need to be aroused and 
drawn out. They learn that health, physical 
as well as mental and moral health, is within 
man, and not something to be imported from 
without. That fact opens their eyes to the 
other and grander possessions — attributes, 
qualities, and powers wrapped up in him, and 
which only need unfolding to become mani- 
fest and effective. They are brought to 
realize, as never before or in any other way, 
that man is truly created in the "image of 
God." It is made a living truth to them that 
mankind are His children, His offspring, sons 
and daughters of His, partakers of His nature, 
sharers in His power, possessors of His life, 



54 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

and joined to Him in oneness. In other words, 
the essential goodness and the inherent great- 
ness of man — his divine, yea, deific nature — 
are thus revealed. And thus it is that the 
real spiritual character, the God-nature of 
man, so opens up in the light and through 
the application of the healing as to give in 
very truth a new revelation of Him. The gos- 
pel works of Jesus, as his gospel word, were 
indeed a wondrous revelation of man, the 
child, not less than of God, the Father. 

And yet, again, it is the experience surely 
of all mental physicians that, to cure physical 
disease of moral origin effectively, it is nec- 
essary first to remove the moral disorder that 
is causative and primary. From this fact is 
deduced naturally as readily the broad funda- 
mental truth of the moral or spiritual basis 
of physical health — that goodness, virtue, af- 
fection, faith, and moral qualities generally 
are basic health, and on the other hand that 
vice, immorality, selfishness, and sin are the 
primary disorders. 

Once more, the truth akin to the one above, 
more or less clearly seen, is that sympathy and 
affection — true, deep, and vital — are the most 
powerful lever to move, convert, and trans- 
form the patient: to bring forth to life and 



THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 55 

wholeness the man, the real man. All your 
experience in healing, it is safe to affirm, 
friends, teaches you that this is true: that 
unselfish love — and the true is unselfish — is 
the fundamental and transcendent spiritual 
power; the primal attribute of God; the root, 
basic quality in man, from which all others 
spring. And, oppositely, it is beginning to 
be plain to all men that selfishness is the root, 
the primary disorder, from which all other 
and minor moral ills arise — hate, anger, fear, 
cowardice, ill-will, malice, injustice, and 
wrong: all vices, crime, and sin. Yes, verily, 
selfishness is the great world disorder from 
which the human race has suffered and still 
suffers. 

But time will hardly allow of even a brief 
mention of the great truths revealed by the 
healing gospel. There are others of scarcely 
less moment, perhaps. The all-beneficence of 
the healing power, experienced in the cure 
by the subject of it, impresses forcibly the 
mind and wins irresistibly the heart to be- 
lieve with a great faith in the "Eternal Good- 
ness," the burden of our poet Whittier's 
beautiful song — that God, the Father, is Good- 
ness Absolute, as says the Hindu, and that 
Infinite Goodness and Love are at the center 



56 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

of the Universe, at the heart of God and 
man. 

Another fact fraught with deep significance 
is learned in the simple physical healing, 
namely, that mind, or thought, has the power 
to reach mind, by virtue, it would seem, of a 
natural inner relationship and independent of 
all external media. When en rapport, soul 
touches soul. Yes, spirit can come into union 
and communion with spirit when exalted by 
faith and inspired by affection. This seems 
to reveal clearly and conclusively that "unity 
of Spirit" is a reality; that indeed "all Mind 
is one." A momentous truth ! 

And, friends, you who have had experience 
in the application of this spiritual therapeutic 
method will doubtless testify that it has solved 
for you, or goes far to solve for you, many 
other problems. For instance, it has helped 
you, in some measure at least, to a solution of 
the great problem of evil. And, again, it has 
aided you, immensely to your own personal, 
practical benefit, to solve the problem of hap- 
piness. And it will be your testimony prob- 
ably that it has helped you to a solution of the 
still more important problem of immortality. 
That being made conscious — being made to 
feel, by its teaching, that you, as all men, are 



THE GOSPEL OF HEALING 57 

immortal here and now — doubt of future im- 
mortality falls away; yea, future immortality 
loses largely its meaning. 

Now, friends, if the healing in your hands 
is found to have anything near the profound 
meaning here represented, then can we not 
believe that the works wrought by Jesus had 
all this and much more and greater signifi- 
cance; that he knew it well, and emphasized 
and enjoined the works so predominantly for 
that reason; that they were, and he expected 
them to be, a revelation to man of the highest 
spiritual truths, principles, and laws? 

Finally, to sum up the whole matter, may 
we not conclude — is it not the simple truth — 
that Jesus' gospel was a twofold dispensation, 
namely, his word of truth to be preached and 
his works of healing to be performed? One 
was the word to be made known, the other 
the works to be put into practice. And they 
were to go inseparably together — the two 
halves of his Christianity that made and make 
the rounded whole. 

We have said that Jesus did not found 
asylums, hospitals, reformatories, or penal or 
charitable institutions. Did he not do some- 
thing possibly of greater importance? Is it 
not possible that, if this other half of the 



58 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

whole of his Christianity — the works — had 
been carried with the word "into all the 
world," the asylums, hospitals, reformatories, 
and even prisons would have been rendered 
largely unnecessary? Might not the evils for 
which they exist have been largely cured or 
prevented? .... 



MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 

BY JULIUS A. DRESSER 

[The author of the following discourse, delivered 
in the Church of the Divine Unity, Boston, in 1887, 
and published in the Mental Healing Monthly, Bos- 
ton, went to Mr. Quimby, in Portland, Me., as a 
patient in 1860, and became an ardent follower and 
expounder of Quimby's views. In response to per- 
sistent requests, he published The True History of 
Mental Science, in 1887, to show the origin of mental 
healing in the United States, in contrast with a view 
which attributed the new truth to a "revelation" in 
1866. He had no desire to enter into controversy, 
but believed that justice should be shown the man 
who unselfishly labored to establish a higher method 
of healing the sick. His own work with the sick 
continued until his death in 1893.] 

It is generally recognized by the world that 
man received his powers and capabilities from 
his Maker; and it is believed by a majority 
of the Christian world that to some extent 
God exists within the members of His human 
family, but in what shape or to what degree 
He lives within them, they have little or no 
59 



60 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

knowledge, nor even a definite belief. But 
that man is really a medium for God is clear 
from the highest spiritual evidences. From 
these evidences it is apparent that man is not 
complete in himself; he is only complete in 
God. Paul says that "our sufficiency is of 
God," and is not of ourselves; and he also 
carries the idea in the same connection that 
man should not take any credit to himself for 
any power of capability as being of himself. 

This divine mediumship is a vital thing to 
understand. For it reveals the fact that, in- 
stead of living in comparative weakness and 
inefficiency, we can approach infinite powers, 
just so far as we become open to and under- 
stand them. How shall we become open to 
these infinite powers? By understanding this 
mediumship or, in other words, by recognizing 
that whatever powers we each possess are not 
merely our own, but are God in us, and there- 
fore are and must be infinite. I do not dis- 
criminate between powers for good and bad, 
because no one will do wrong except through 
ignorance. 

A wise man knows that it does not pay to 
be bad or to conduct himself in an evil man- 
ner, and the unwise one is forced to learn 
this. There is but one direction in which it 



MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 61 

pays to move, in word or deed, and that is 
the right one. And the knowledge that our 
powers and capabilities are God in us takes 
away all desire to act recklessly or otherwise 
than with the best of motives and for the best 
of results. 

The understanding of this mediumship is 
gained by knowing ourselves analytically, or 
in proportion as we thus know ourselves; 
but the worst enemy we have in getting this 
understanding and in enjoying the infinite 
power spoken of is selfishness. Man is born 
in ignorance, but he can grow out of that 
condition, if he overcomes his selfishness. In 
proportion as he is impeded by this, it is like 
a dead weight to defeat his progress toward 
light and truth. For, if he is in reality a 
medium for that which is not himself, the 
more he is bound up in his own personal com- 
fort, his own affairs, good or bad, the less 
can that power use him; and his selfishness 
prevents his finding out his true status, it 
blinds his eyes and seals him in ignorance. 

As we were born in ignorance of ourselves 
and of the truth, what arrangement did God 
make for working through us, how is He to 
get his work done that each of us is assigned 
to do? Indirectly, through our natural be- 



62 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

lief in the necessity for action, but, directly, 
through love. This element of love is a 
prompting toward another; and, as our igno- 
rance of life and truth makes us largely de- 
pendent on each other for help of various 
kinds, the flow of love and the good will of 
charity is thereby promoted, and this opens 
us to an exercise of the God-powers within 
us, which are not only love, but all powers 
by which we perform our daily works and 
duties. 

This spontaneous love, the very opposite of 
selfishness, opens out the soul to a full and 
free action for whatever benefit or cause we 
may promote, be it that of our families, our 
neighbors and friends, or the general good; 
and its stream is always laden with the dews 
of heaven for every thirsty soul it may help. 
Love, therefore, is the avenue for God through 
us. And we know very well that love is born 
of truth; while selfishness is born of igno- 
rance, a soil in which the truth cannot flour- 
ish. Here we see why Paul said, "Let no 
man seek his own, but each his neighbors 
good," because man's real power, God, works 
through one for another ; and love unites us 
all in one bond of brotherhood, and in our 
common Father, who is the one only Reality. 



MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 63 

And we see why Jesus said so much about 
oneness with his disciples, and why he laid 
down such far-reaching and apparently super- 
human laws for the practice of love, such as 
"Love your enemies," "Do good to them that 
hate you and despitefully use you." It was 
because love is the very flood-gate through 
which flow man's real and true powers, and 
the wisdom that makes success and breaks 
down all obstacles. Christ's law of love, 
therefore, is the very economy of life, the 
open door for the powers of the Infinite to 
flow through us to secure our prosperity and 
to do mighty works. 

This mediumship is again expressed when 
we are told to work out our own salvation ; 
and the consolation is added that "it is God 
who worketh in you both to will and to do of 
his good pleasure." And this is a consolation ; 
for what the passage means is that God works 
through me, for instance, to will and to do 
whatever it is necessary for me to do. There- 
fore, God Himself is in every act of my life. 
And in every duty that we have to perform, 
and in every opportunity for doing good to 
another, if we do it willingly. Even to a 
denial of self, where our personal preference 
stands in the way, God is as much in it (our 



64 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

deed) as we are, and even more, because God 
is the reality of our being, and without Him 
we are nothing. 

What a glorious life does this describe ! 
What a majority against all difficulties ! 
Surely, there can be no failure in such a life, 
except beyond where we understand ; and 
God is constantly leading us into all truth and 
understanding. This is where selfishness does 
not stand in the way, and where no prefer- 
ence of our own, outside of simple necessity 
or justice to ourselves, is allowed to prevent 
a willing and an earnest doing of whatever 
seems to be the better way or the kindly act, 
or any duty in any given circumstances. Also 
where no personal reputation or self-glory is 
ever desired, and the cause of truth and the 
good of humanity, or of our neighbor, is ever 
uppermost. 

Man is not a man in the abstract, but in the 
concrete. That is, he is an organized being; 
and it is as such that we need to deal with 
Him and understand Him. Now, if God fills 
all space, He certainly is within man — in every 
human being, so far as space is concerned, 
and that practically establishes God in man. 1 

1 That is, God is in truth the "Omnipresent Wis- 
dom," the essayist's favorite term for God. — Ed. 



MAN A MEDIUM OF GOD 65 

Man is but an image or a thought of God, but 
God certainly is in His own thoughts. 

Besides the many passages in Paul's writ- 
ings which directly speak of God in man, 
what does Jesus say about it? Being asked 
when the kingdom of God would come, he 
replied that it came not with observation, but 
"behold! the kingdom of God is within you." 

Now, if we understand that God fills the 
same space that our bodily form appears to 
occupy, that it is He who fills the space and 
we fill none of it, we soonest get away from 
the material sense of ourselves and more com- 
pletely hold ourselves as purely mental (spir- 
itual), with God as the reality of our being; 
and His attributes become the thoughts that 
govern us. In fact, the full realization of 
this has the most powerful correcting and 
harmonizing effect of any thought with which 
you can search yourself. And herein lies the 
meaning of Christ's words when He said, "He 
that findeth his life (that is, his physical life) 
shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for 
My sake (Christ's) shall find it." This is 
literally true, and it puts Christ in every inch 
of space that you occupy. 1 Until you can 

1 The term "space" is, of course, partly figurative, 
and refers rather to spiritual states. — Ed. 



66 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

make this surrender, you are not fully 
Christ's, nor can you fully experience the 
fact that God is "All in all;" that is, the only 
Reality in yourself. 



VI 



CAN DISEASE BE ENTIRELY 
DESTROYED? 

BY EMMA G. WARE 

[Miss Ware was a patient and follower of P. P. 
Quimby.] 

To answer this question it is necessary to 
understand what is the origin of disease. 
Medical authority asserts that it is of matter, 
and that the germs of various diseases have 
been found and analyzed. Popular belief ac- 
knowledges its existence independent of man, 
and certain localities are believed to be in- 
fected by it, thereby rendering human life in 
danger from the poison emanating from it. If 
the materialistic theory is true, the medical 
authority is correct, and the popular belief 
that disease is a creation as much as man is 
well founded. But the truth we are studying 
denies this in principle and in fact. Health 
is like liberty, directly from God, and it can 
67 



68 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

be kept and enjoyed. Man can learn to live 
in health as truly as he can learn to govern 
his morals. With a full understanding of the 
truth man need not be sick and diseased any 
more than he need be vicious. The universal 
belief in disease is founded on the universal 
belief that matter has life, power, and can 
direct itself. If this is true, it accounts for 
disease, but it does not destroy it, and so long 
as this belief in matter lasts just so long will 
disease be in the world. Therefore, to destroy 
it we must take away its foundations. 

Can all life and intelligence be taken from 
matter and yet allow man to remain with his 
senses and faculties? This is what the truth 
will do if it is allowed to work. The first 
point to settle in investigating a phenomenon 
is the relation between the Creator and the 
thing created. The Creator is omnipresent, 
and all his works praise Him. In Him is all 
life and all love. Matter we can assume is 
without power and without comprehension of 
any kind. 1 Like figures, it is without good or 
evil, but can be used to work out a result. It 
is not even an agent. It is constantly chang- 
ing and shifting to work out some plan, the 

1 This was a cardinal principle with Mr. Quimby. 
-Ed. 



CAN DISEASE BE DESTROYED? 69 

design of an intelligence superior to and in- 
dependent of the matter employed. Man's 
body is the obstacle that stands between him 
and progress, virtue and health. The ma- 
terialists say that it is alive and that it meas- 
ures out to man his intellectual capacity, and 
contains a nature or a tendency to vice or 
disease which he cannot control. This belief 
arises from attributing intelligence and power 
to matter, and the results accord with the 
belief. Man's body is indeed of matter, but 
it is for him to control and use, and his in- 
telligence is equal to the task. It may be com- 
pared to the surface of a river whose waters 
constantly change, but where the same appear- 
ance is kept up. 

Man acts in wisdom and in ignorance, and 
the fruits show which of these is dominant. 
Good and evil are what he brings forth. Dis- 
ease certainly is an evil, and the whole foun- 
dation on which it rests is of ignorance, for 
Wisdom's works are good. Lift disease from 
matter into error, and then it can be reached 
by reason, like any other evil. To do this is 
to learn Wisdom and to separate the works 
of God from the inventions of man. We must 
not put the responsibility of error upon God 
and look to Him as the author of our suffer- 



70 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

ings, for if this is followed we shall never 
arrive at truth. We must find out what our 
particular fear is and what error governs us 
when we are in trouble, and then we can have 
something to work upon. The foundation of 
an error must be destroyed, and then the error 
will cease to exist. 

When the sick ask a question they ask for 
a substance like food. Their life is in danger, 
they are in torment and they ask for help. 
But when those in health ask a question they 
ask from curiosity and a desire to be enlight- 
ened. Each requires a different answer. One 
says, Deliver me from my enemies, and the 
other says, How can I understand the absurd 
statements you make? For instance, when 
you say that there is no death or disease, 
what do you mean? The answer which the 
sick requires comes from perfect love which 
casts out fear. This Love is the open door 
to Wisdom, which will heal all sickness. 
When one has it, his selfishness, his preju- 
dices and his opinions are dissolved, as it 
were, and he is prepared to hear the voice of 
Wisdom. Everything evil yields before Wis- 
dom, and in order to attain it man must give 
up his errors. Whatever he loves more than 
Truth stands between himself and Wisdom. 



CAN DISEASE BE DESTROYED? 71 

The mental cure as founded and practised by 
Dr. Quimby claims to be based upon a truth. 
To learn to apply that truth to the healing of 
the sick requires devoted and conscientious 
study. To answer the questions in regard to 
it is to teach it, and what we hope to do is to 
make people see that there is something to 
learn. 

The question whether the mental cure 
would work, while the person pursued a course 
of overeating during the time it was going 
on, would be like asking if a slave can be set 
free and still serve his master as he did in the 
days of his bondage. The man who overeats 
is a slave, and serves a master. Procure his 
freedom, and he serves himself. He then 
eats from another motive. The Truth puts 
no restrictions upon him, nor does it prescribe 
any rules of living. His fetters are struck off 
and he is his own master, and he eats from 
an understanding of truth. It has been said 
that laws made to prevent crime by punish- 
ing the criminal are instrumental in increasing 
crime. So regulations made to prevent man 
from going into evil do not instruct him, but 
they ignore his capacity for self-government 
in regard to health. Health denies disease 
and Liberty denies slavery. If health is true, 



72 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

disease is counterfeit and only passes where 
it has not been detected. The difference be- 
tween a slave and a prosperous gentleman is 
as the difference between an invalid and one 
who enjoys sound health. The slave is under 
restrictions and is weak and timid. To lay 
down any rules which if followed would make 
the slave as strong and influential as the citi- 
zen is impossible, and it is equally impossible 
to give any directions about diet, by which 
a dyspeptic could feel as comfortable as a 
man in the most natural state, i.e., a savage. 
Both are under different laws. One eats to 
satisfy his craving for food and the other to 
gratify his taste. To cure the epicure re- 
quires a healer to understand the wisdom of 
God cmd to pity man in his follies and errors. 
The path he takes him is through a wilderness 
of error to perfect truth. 



VII 

THE DISEASE OF 
APPREHENSIVENESS 

BY EDWARD A. PENNOCK 

[Mr. Pennock is a Quaker minister, also a New 
Thought writer, and was formerly president of the 
Metaphysical Club, of Boston. The following essay 
is reprinted from The Journal of Practical Meta- 
physics, October, 1896.] 

A large part of mankind is in bondage to 
that state of mind which is apprehensive of 
some sort of trouble or misfortune in the 
future. It is found among all sorts and con- 
ditions of men; it permeates every station, 
occupation and profession. The millionaire, 
with a comfortable bank account and a steady 
income from stocks and bonds and rentals, 
is no more likely to be free from it than the 
humble toiler who lives from hand to mouth. 
The physician, who should have confidence 
in his healing art, becomes apprehensive from 
the very fact of his researches into morbidity, 
73 



74 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

and is fearful of the power of disease and of 
the omnipresent microbe. Even the clergy- 
man, who of all men might be supposed to 
be most peaceful and confident, is apt to limit 
the goodness and love and omnipotence of the 
Being whom he worships as his God. 

In general, we are prone to treasure the 
memories of our past failures and sorrows, 
which serve as a background on which are 
developed the distorted pictures of future un- 
happiness. We do this not only consciously, 
but unconsciously. Every experience in life 
leaves an impression in the memory structure. 
To this subconscious condition we keep add- 
ing by our chronic pessimism. We dwell 
upon the accidents and crimes and misfor- 
tunes of humanity; we look for the evil and 
neglect the good. Thus is established a pow- 
erful subconscious force that is ever active 
in shaping the course of our lives. This, of 
necessity, will evince itself in some way, and 
generally progressively, from that miserable 
state of dread which is constantly crying, 

"What if ," or "Yes, but ," on to a 

physical manifestation of disease that may be 
learnedly labelled by the physician, but which 
the metaphysician recognized as the same 
old "blue devil." 



DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 75 

If we ask the cause of this widespread dis- 
ease, we shall find its origin in a wrong con- 
ception of God. The root of it all is in the 
old idea that God is a jealous, vengeful per- 
sonality, sitting in judgment over His chil- 
dren, and liable at any time to send visitations 
of His wrath upon them, or ready to condemn 
them to eternal punishment. Coupled with 
this is the belief that there is a power of evil 
ever striving to gain possession of men, and 
permitted by God to bring confusion and 
misery upon them. 

These two powerful opinions, coming to us 
from the infancy and ignorance of the race, 
are totally destructive of peace, harmony and 
health, and actively productive of the opposite 
conditions. Although as theological dogmas 
they are happily fast passing away, their off- 
spring survives them, and their name is legion. 
Dread of disease and of "bad luck" is still 
common. We stand in awe of death because 
we dread the change and the uncertainty of 
the hereafter. Even the elements have been 
endowed with power of evil because God was 
said to have cursed the world on account of 
disobedience; one person dreads the winter, 
another the summer, another the night air or 
the east wind. If there is not a positive dread, 



76 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

there is negative unbelief, and the disease of 
apprehensiveness is born of both. We fail to 
connect cause and effect; we do not discrim- 
inate between reality and unreality ; we live in 
the things of time and sense. The great "over- 
sense" of faith is left out of our lives ; we are 
apprehensive of what fate or fortune may 
bring. We limit our God and ourselves; we 
are apprehensive because we do not realize 
His Allness and our own oneness with Him, 
which brings to us the possibility of achieve- 
ment, as well as the responsibility. 

The specific forms in which this disease 
manifests itself are so numerous and so varied 
by the modifications of individual experience 
that we will not attempt to trace them all; 
but it will be helpful to mention some of the 
more common. The destructive forces of ap- 
prehensiveness frequently begin their work in 
the unborn child. Sometimes the mother's 
apprehensions, when caused by a specific ex- 
perience, are marked upon the child in some 
frightful deformity, either of body or char- 
acter. Again, if the maternal dread is more 
general, the manifestation may be less marked 
upon the child at birth, but the germ-cells have 
been poisoned .... and the effect will be 
none the less sure, resulting in stunted and 



DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 77 

distorted unfoldment of the child life. Mod- 
ern psychology and child-study have revealed 
the tremendous and terrible inheritance of 
fear and dread that parents hand down to 
their children. The dread of night, of being 
buried alive, of death and of eternal flames, 
are common among children; and they leave 
their impress upon the subconsciousness, even 
after the conscious mind has dropped them. 
From this source comes the tendency to be 
easily shocked, to sudden starts from slight 
causes, and to spontaneous flushing, which is 
common among children and grown people as 
well. Many parents follow their children 
through childhood and youth with anxiety 
and apprehensiveness that are surely reflected 
upon the formative mind, and bear fruit after 
their kind. As we advance in life, instinc- 
tively or from experience, we form new ap- 
prehensions. We are afraid of poverty, afraid 
of accident, afraid of public opinion. 

This apprehensiveness takes all the sunshine 
out of life, throws a wet blanket over all our 
activities, sours our whole nature, paralyzes 
us. Just as surely does it react on the physical 
part of our being, by depressing the nerve 
centers and infusing morbid activity into the 
cells. The result is a torpid liver, a weak 



78 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

heart, a sour stomach, nervous prostration and 
paralysis. These things follow just so surely 
as two and two make four. Cause and effect, 
mind and embodiment, are inseparable. There 
can be no doubt that the only danger from 
epidemic diseases lies in the dread of them, 
either conscious or unconscious. The germ 
theory of disease is being displaced by a more 
rational view, which regards the germs, not 
as causes, but as friendly subsequent activities 
that come in to bring a new form of life to 
a condition that requires them. It is the 
morbid and fearful thought that is fatal, not 
the germs. Even granting their causative 
power, physiology has shown that the human 
life-forces, when at their full tide of vigor, 
are able to cope with and vanquish all lower 
forms. The gastric juice and the white blood 
corpuscles are perfect germicides, when not 
lessened in quantity and deteriorated in quality 
by anxiety, dread and the depressing emotions. 
Apprehensiveness is causative in crime as 
well as physical in disease. Many a man is 
led to steal because he dreads want or loss 
of social position. Men commit murder be- 
cause they are apprehensive of injury from 
those whom they make their victims. In 
political economy is not apprehensiveness a 



DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 79 

factor also? Confidence is the life of busi- 
ness. When it is weakened, credits are with- 
drawn, money is withheld from circulation, 
industrial activity ceases; we have "hard 
times." What is more destructive to con- 
fidence than apprehensiveness ? Poverty and 
crime are diseases and apprehensiveness is a 
cause. 

We have now considered cause and effect; 
what shall be the remedy ? We know that no 
remedy can be effectual that does not deal 
with causes. The cause must be eradicated 
at once and forever. Many may question the 
possibility of human nature being free from 
anxiety and apprehensiveness. Can man be- 
lieve in an immanent God, an everpresent 
Help, an All-in-all, and apply this belief to 
everyday life? This is one-half the problem. 
Swedenborg says, "Solicitude about futurity, 
confirmed by act, makes dull and retards the 
influx of spiritual life, for they who are solic- 
itous attribute to themselves what is of the 
Divine Providence, and they who do this 
oppose the influx of life, and oppose the life 
of good and truth!' Herein is suggested the 
other half — a belief in one's self as a mani- 
festation of that Life, which, with the first, 
will make the complete circle, the Summum 



80 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

Bonum. First, then, a full realization of 
omnipresent spiritual Reality, an unchanging 
Goodness, of which the universe is an ex- 
pression; second, an adjustment of all thought 
and all activity to this great proposition and 
to its corollary, that man, made in the image 
of this Supreme Spirit, is spiritual, and re- 
ceives constantly an influx of life and good 
and truth that will lead him on to the fulfil- 
ment of his highest destiny : this is the mark, 
and we can answer unequivocally that it is 
universally attainable. 

These statements of Being are the basis 
of the highest religious teaching. The most 
advanced science teaches the same; the uni- 
versality of Life, the oneness of the Universe, 
the beneficence of Law, the supremacy of 
Mind. Thousands of people are solving the 
problems of life by these propositions, now, 
day by day. Life must be continuous ; there 
can only be NOW. What is for one is for 
all. God is no respecter of persons. 

The removal of the cause of the disease of 
apprehensiveness is reduced thus to a simple 
change of mind on our part, to a different 
way of thinking, to a training of our mental 
activities away from ignorance and error, 
along the lines of cosmic truth, to include 



DISEASE OF APPREHENSIVENESS 81 

all that is good and beautiful. Our thinking 
faculties are our own to use as we will. 
Power is born of desire; we may drop all 
anxiety and apprehensiveness if we will. As 
we train ourselves to accept that view of God 
and His universe which accords with highest 
reason and science and intuition, there will be 
no place for apprehensive thoughts. As these 
disappear, we become more and more open 
to the influx of all that is true and whole- 
some and hopeful; — in a word, of all that is 
Divine. Our fear is turned into courage ; our 
faith is transmuted into works. If God be for 
us, who, or what, can be against us? Thus 
we come to know the Immanent Life of the 
world, the ever-creative Love. We come to 
recognize ourselves as manifestations of this 
Life and Love, through the ideal manifesta- 
tion that was in Christ. This is life eternal, 
an ever-progressive, ever-widening and ever- 
deepening life, from now, henceforth. In it, 
perfect love casts out fear, and thus the end 
of religion and of education is attained. 



VIII 

"PERFECT LOVE CASTETH OUT 
FEAR" 

BY WALTER B. ADAMS 

[Mr. Adams was formerly an active member of 
the Metaphysical Club. This essay is from The 
Journal of Practical Metaphysics, May, 1897.] 

These words must mean something. But 
do they have any significance of real value to 
you and me? If so, wherein do we give evi- 
dence of it? Do we not find fear the domi- 
nating sense of humanity? Do we find it 
modified appreciably as a rule among con- 
ventionally religious people? "Religion is the 
life of God in the soul of man," says Lyman 
Abbott. God and Perfect Love are one. The 
use of religion is to promote happiness; not 
alone nor especially in a future life, but 
now. Indeed religion is necessary to real 
happiness. How much real happiness is pos- 
sible to one whose life is dominated by a sense 
of fear? You must have observed that gen- 
83 



84 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

eral conversation is largely an expression of 
fear concerning all things. 

The present moment would usually yield 
contentment enough if it were not wrecked 
by the fear of the next and successive mo- 
ments. 

"Some of your hurts you have cured, 

And the sharpest you still have survived; 
But what torments of grief you endured 
From evils which never arrived." 

How much Perfect Love does a man have 
whose mentality is saturated with fear? 

Here is a man nearing the close of an active 
life. He has been devoutly religious in all 
external observances. For years he has con- 
ducted a Bible class for young men, and has 
been foremost in church work. He has been 
rigidly orthodox in his views. He has been 
abundantly successful in business and has 
shared his income most generously with the 
less fortunate. What bearing has his religious 
life had upon his happiness? Observe him. 
He wears habitually a look of depression and 
melancholy. Upon inquiry we learn that he 
suffers from the "disease of apprehensive- 
ness." Among other things the fear of death 
haunts him, and altogether he has no peace. 



"LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR" 85 

But he is to find happiness in the next life 
because of his faithfulness to his religious 
belief in this ! Is there any sense in this ex- 
planation? Decidedly not. There is some- 
thing radically wrong in the conception and 
practice of his religion. After a life-long 
religious experience he seems to have nothing 
helpful to give out except his money. The 
beauty or utility of religious truth is usually 
not half told. Its relations to man's moral 
needs, esthetically considered, and to his hap- 
piness in a future existence are well empha- 
sized, but what about the practical value of 
religious truth to every soul for health, hap- 
pin ess and prosperity now? 

Experience teaches that many people who 
profess to believe in spiritual realities act in 
daily life as if the material existence was the 
only one. 

A ruling consciousness of Divine Life in 
man is absolutely essential to his wholeness. 
He cannot ignore this law of his nature with- 
out sooner or later giving evidence of it. 

Religion misses its mark if it does not pro- 
duce in man some sense of at-one-ment with 
the Divine Life or Perfect Love. Is living 
in a constant state of fear and great anxiety 
concerning all things consistent with the pos- 



86 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

session of an appreciable measure of Perfect 
Love? Belief about Perfect Love will not 
cast out fear; one must live under its spell. 
"Perfect love casteth out fear" is an ideal 
statement, and as we absorb it into our 
thoughts and attempt to make it the rule of 
life we may grow into some realization of its 
beauty and freedom. Perfect love and perfect 
trust are synonymous. Our energies must be 
directed toward the upbuilding of the inner- 
man. The abiding well-fare of the outer-man 
is dependent upon it. 

Every chronic sufferer must realize that 
fear plays an important part in his undesirable 
condition. In numberless cases the relief from 
the tension of fear would undoubtedly mark 
the beginning of convalescence. Many people 
through the pernicious habit of fearing almost 
everything which experience brings, trivial or 
grave, are thoughtlessly preparing for them- 
selves a dis-ease of some sort of more or less 
intensity. People discriminate carefully con- 
cerning nourishment for the body, but seem 
perfectly indifferent about the quality of their 
mental food. If Perfect Love will cast out 
fear every one needs it. Fear makes one 
nerveless. Faith is its antidote. The mass 
of people apparently do little or no real vital 



"LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR" 87 

thinking. They drift along very near the sur- 
face. If we would manifest the divine attri- 
butes — love, power, courage — we must think 
on these things. The germ of Perfect Love 
is resident in every soul, and to grow into 
realization of it one must exercise the spiritual 
faculties. Love is a great power. Direct its 
rays toward all people with whom you come 
in contact — in the household, in society, in 
business — and you will find its reflex action of 
the first magnitude. See the good in every 
one. Emphasize it. 

The more we become conscious of the Di- 
vine Love in us the more we shall manifest 
courage and poise and real happiness. Fill 
the mind with high ideals and a thousand 
fears die for want of attention. 



IX 
A PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 

BY FRED VINCENT FULLER 

I had nothing in the beginning of my spir- 
itual awakening to combat except possibly 
subconsciously the narrow beliefs of Ortho- 
doxy, for I never accepted its handed-down 
man-made traditions of less favored ages, and 
yet I found latent in myself many of the grim 
New England teachings of repression, fear- 
Godness and stern-visaged duty, while at the 
same time I felt somewhat in regard to min- 
isters as did Emerson : "That the relations of 
the soul to the Divine Spirit are so pure that 
it is profane to interpose helps." 

Some two years ago 1 I read Miss Whit- 
ing's World Beautiful and the picture there- 
in drawn of the joyous, bold, care and worry- 
free life which one might come into fasci- 
nated me, and I often wondered almost dully 

1 The above was written in 1896. Reprinted from 
The Journal of Practical Metaphysics. 
89 



90 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

whence could come the ladder by means of 
which I might be lifted to this ecstatic plane 
where one thrilled at all times with abound- 
ing zeal, exuberance, peace and unlimited 
power of accomplishment. For nearly ten 
consecutive years I had in cold weather 
months, on account of a (supposed) lack of 
vitality been inwardly depressed, morbid, blue, 
and introspective, and my mental condition at 
these periods was as distinct from brighter 
portions of my life as was Dr. Jekyll from 
Mr. Hyde. I was troubled, too, while intel- 
lectually free to roam the universe, with a 
vague unrest, a deep inward irritating discon- 
tent, and often thought half enviously of the 
perfect rest and content believers in Catholi- 
cism seem to have from their absolute accept- 
ance of their faith. One blessed day Miss 
Whiting wrote these words in one of her se- 
rial articles: "It is not just to consider the 
subject (suggestion) without referring to the 
best book ever written upon it, one that is an 
efficient hand-book of the inner life, — Mr. 
Henry Wood's Ideal Suggestion. In this a 
number of years ago Mr. Wood formulated 
the law and presented it in the most clear, 
simple, and impressive way." 

While somewhat familiar with spiritual and 



PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 91 

progressive literature, most of it had seemed 
vague and speculative to me and wholly lack- 
ing in method, due to the fact that my pro- 
fession as well as my nature contributed to 
give me methodical, systematic ways of view- 
ing and acquiring things. I got Ideal Sug- 
gestion and the first night I read through 
acceptably, on account of my knowledge of 
hypnotism and kindred subjects, the theory 
presented in its first hundred pages. The sec- 
ond night I took my first meditation and Sug- 
gestion, "GOD IS HERE," and from that 
day to this — one year — I have never had a 
moment's depression, and as I went on learn- 
ing, step by step, to rest my thought upon the 
great normal Reality, peace flowed like a river 
through my mind, and joy came more and 
more into my possession: 

"And all the jarring notes of life 

Seemed blended in a Psalm, 
And all the angles of its strife 
Slow rounding into calm/' 

The first few suggestions took such hold 
upon me that while riding in a street car I 
would mentally see them emblazoned about 
me in a more positive way even than the ad- 
vertisements. So peaceful, patient, hopeful 



92 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

did I become, even in the midst of business 
complications and unusual happenings, that I 
several times thought I must be in a fools' 
paradise, and that my state was too good and 
suddenly acquired to be real, that such ex- 
hilaration could not last but would drop me 
with a thud from cloudland earthward after 
the first frenzy wore off. At such times I 
would take a mental account of stock and al- 
ways had to decide that even if I failed to 
permanently gain and hold all the spiritual 
graces promised, I could then and there see 
I was morally more firm and bold, intellect- 
ually more keen and originative, while physi- 
cally I was in perfect condition. 

On one occasion, talking of doubt, I asked 
Mr. Wood if he himself ever doubted the 
foundation principles and brilliant hopes held 
out in his book, and he informed me that the 
doctrine therein expressed had been so widely 
demonstrated, as proven by his great mass of 
correspondence with people in every part of 
the country, that no shadow of unbelief could 
possibly possess him. From among his many 
letters he loaned me nearly half a hundred 
glorious, enthusiastic endorsements, and as I 
read those frank, spontaneous, stimulating 
testimonies from people who had discovered 



PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 93 

that Heaven is a condition of subjective har- 
mony and knowledge of Truth, and not a far- 
off country, my doubt was victoriously swal- 
lowed and assimilated into new zeal and fer- 
vor, much as Emerson advises one to "Work 
your passion up into poetry." Ideal Sugges- 
tion became my daily food, and when jour- 
neying about had its place in my satchel, and 
so traveled in a few months six thousand 
miles with me, and was more cheering than 
a roomful of folks. Other books doubtless 
do and will touch and fit other temperaments 
as this one did mine, for Truth is never an 
exclusive thing, bottled up in one mind only, 
while the key-word for advancement is daily 
persistence. 

Progress in these lines being a growth and 
uneven and inappreciable from day to day, and 
even sometimes from month to month, I was 
for a long time puzzled to see why my mental 
inharmony ceased from the day I first began 
my new exercises, but recently in reading Mr. 
Dresser's The Power of Silence I came across 
this sentence, "His harmful states of mind 
will cease to trouble him if he refuse them the 
attention which is their life," and the mystery 
was solved. 

A thing exists for us and influences us only 



94 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

when it comes to or holds our attention, and 
we can think absorbingly of but one thing at 
a time. If you have never been to Australia 
and it never comes to your attention, then so 
far as exerting any influence on your life and 
thought goes, it does not exist for you. If a 
wild animal escapes from a menagerie and 
roams through city streets paralyzing all who 
see him with fear, and yet your own attention 
does not get directed toward him, his presence 
near you does not terrify because no thought 
of him has entered your mind, and so he is 
mentally harmless to you. Your neighbor may 
be bowed down with secret, crushing despair, 
as real and distressing to him as a broken 
limb, but as your attention is not called to it, 
but is filled with your own concerns, it is un- 
known to you. Now the grand thoughts pre- 
sented in Ideal Suggestion were of intense in- 
terest to me and immediately they were 
presented to my attention they completely 
filled, occupied, and absorbed it so that when 
my mind was freed from ordinary duties, 
these elevating new thoughts flowed into it 
spontaneously and filled it, utterly excluding 
pessimistic and morbid thought. In this nat- 
ural, normal way, then, doubt and worry 
dropped out of my life almost instantly, be- 



PAGE FROM MY INNER LIFE 95 

cause ideal thoughts automatically sprang in 
when allowed to, and their opposites, being dis- 
placed from consciousness, died. In the same 
way sin, fear, and ignorance are displaced by 
the sunlight of bright thinking and* are gone 
forever, and to hold in mind this simple prin- 
ciple of "No attention, no existence" is a most 
helpful key to aid in controlling phases of 
thinking. 

It might be argued that any other hobby 
which absorbed one's entire interest would 
make him happy in its pursuit, and this is 
partly so, but the deeper, inner growth of 
subconscious harmony and education which 
is the result aimed at would be lacking, if or- 
dinary objective pursuits were substituted for 
spiritual thoughts and truths which concern 
our being's most sacred depths. 

To one who is harmonious and touched 
with the light, the world is continually radi- 
ant, and a walk with nature is a sweet com- 
munion, every person, dog, tree, rock, is redo- 
lent with relatedness and have joyful speech 
with us through the All which glistens in 
them. God is no longer a word of three let- 
ters to him, but a vital, warming, satisfying 
Energy of which he is a part, and which whis- 
pers lowly to him in every breeze saying: 



96 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

"Men are tubes through which the breath of 
God doth blow a momentary music." He is 
"Ever in the presence of and always close to 
Love," and he feels as he views the setting 
sun, the crystal sky, the stretch of landscape, 
a sense of ideal ownership in it even to the 
point of exclaiming with Monte Cristo, "The 
world is mine." 

His life moving parallel with Divine Law 
becomes simple, luminous, sweet, and he is 
startled at the favoring and added things 
which manifest in his environment, for spir- 
itual harmony, through the law of attraction 
and correspondence, produces an easy, per- 
fect condition of harmony in all he has to do 
with, and this fills him to the brim with soft 
thankfulness and wet-eyed appreciation. Per- 
sons, circumstances, things, come profusely in 
his way and he no longer strives or competes, 
but is lovingly led or beckoned on by the pri- 
mal power of the universe, that part of God 
within himself. All things show new lustre, 
and speak lovingly to him with new tongues, 
and he finds that : 

"Earth's crammed with Heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God." 



X 

THE IDEAL HEALER 

BY ELLEN M. DYER 

[Miss Dyer was for many years the leading meta- 
physical healer and teacher in Philadelphia.] 

There are healers and healers in the New 
Thought today, and it is inevitable that the 
general public and those in special need should 
show a growing tendency to move carefully, 
discriminate and classify as experience brings 
wisdom. 

A few years ago it was stated with unction 
by the eager promulgators of the movement 
that the consideration of personality must not 
enter into the question of who should heal, or 
to which of several available practitioners the 
one desiring help should apply. But after it 
had also been accepted, as a fact not to be 
questioned, that twelve lessons were the all- 
necessary equipment of the one who was to 
assume to guide living souls from bondage to 
freedom, the fruit began to give token of the 
97 



98 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

manner of tree that produced it, and the first 
statement began to call for deeper soundings 
as to its basis in practical truth. 

Some one has said that personality is "the 
divine thing in the world." It is, indeed, when 
regenerated and emptied of human obstruc- 
tion, the channel of divine and impersonal 
truth to man. But the all-important point is 
that it be thus cleared and purified ; for every 
feature and force therein is called upon to 
render service in this highest of earthly min- 
istry. 

What constitutes the ideal and practical 
healer? He has been a deep student both in 
heart and head, but now he is more — he has 
passed beyond study, so far as the work now 
put into his hands is concerned. Ever look- 
ing with head and heart toward experience 
and revelation, in his march onward, he is, 
nevertheless, in relation to the patient at his 
side, a spontaneous, living force, ever seeing 
more than he presents, and realizing more 
than he affirms. Saturated with love unspeak- 
able, he radiates therefrom; but the radiation 
is yet less than the abundant possession. The 
student is lost sight of in the disciple, the dis- 
ciple is merged in the seer and lover. 

He gives not only his faith, his word, his 



THE IDEAL HEALER 99 

love, but himself; and the measure of good 
received, however great, holds a still larger 
value as suggestion of the possibilities that are 
unfathomable. The patient is helped, healed, 
and infinitely more — his feet are put into the 
path that leads to self-help. Through the 
healer's recognition his own intuitions are 
aroused, and he is henceforth his own physi- 
cian. The true and deepest healing, there- 
fore, lies in the educative quality that it pos- 
sesses rather than in the temporary cure. 

No trick of method or intellectual acuteness 
makes the healer ; it is his own intrinsic indi- 
viduality, sincerely and unselfishly put forth. 
Nor is excess of phenomena needed to mark 
his steady progress from year to year; how- 
ever, as flashlights of experience, these may 
here and there give glimpses of the back- 
ground of power drawn upon. Nor is the 
healing a matter of occasional and spasmodic 
effort, but a largely unconscious and continu- 
ous progression in realization — an undeviat- 
ing tendency in the direction of that habitual 
right thinking and loving that are to usher in 
the divine humanity. Hence it is never a task 
to be performed, but the impulsion of a great 
and inexhaustible love, that, having no burden 
of self to bear, knows no weariness of self. 



100 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT"' 

Not an exclusive or personal love is this deep 
impulse, but a single pulse-beat from the 
Mother-Heart of God, conscious that it beats 
only in responsive unison with the All, elimi- 
nating all suggestion of personal desire, eager- 
ness or comparison. 

In Goldsmith's Village Preacher of many 
years ago we read the prophecy of the Ideal 
Healer of today: 

"Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power, 
By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; 
For other aims his heart had learned to prize, 
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise." 

Yet to the healer's view there are no 
wretched ; he has already risen to the Mount 
of Beatitudes, where he sees that the greatest 
need is but the attractive point for the great- 
est blessedness. 

"And as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter fields, and led the way." 

Independent of the creed of stereotyped 
statements, the dogma of established methods, 
his one fixed point is his own interior touch 
with his divinity, whence he floods his patient 



THE IDEAL HEALER 101 

with the overflow of his latest and purest rev- 
elation of the moment. His patient is to him, 
for the time, the one only soul to be lifted up 
and illumined, his present and best opportu- 
nity for giving forth the healing power that 
is filling him. So does he attain to the "Great 
Ideal," and the world in its great need draws 
near to him because he has drawn near to God. 
Faith is a necessity of life. Life is impos- 
sible without it. And the very first thing we 
do is to believe. "Thought may shake or 
strengthen faith: it cannot produce it. Is its 
origin in the will ? No ; good-will may favor 
it, ill-will may hinder it, but no one believes 
by will, and faith is not a duty — it is an in- 
stinct, for it precedes all outward instruction." 
As Count Tolstoi says: "If a man lives, he 
believes in something. If he did not believe 
that there is something to live for, he would 
not live. If he does not see and understand 
the unreality of the finite, he believes in the 
finite. If he sees that unreality, he must be- 
lieve in the infinite. Without faith there is no 
life." 



XI 

HEALING SUGGESTIONS 
(A Letter to a Patient) 

BY EDWARD A. PENNOCK 

Your continued anxiety about physical trou- 
bles only serves to intensify and increase them. 
Can you not trust yourself fully to the great 
Love and Power which makes itself felt 
through all the universe in perfect order and 
harmony? Try to give yourself over as to 
results completely to God and the silent-spok- 
en words of Truth. Your present attitude is 
not different from that of many another. The 
race has trusted so long in material things 
that it is willing to put faith in a pill or a po- 
tion to help God along in His work. Does not 
this seem ridiculous? The power that makes 
for wholeness is resident within ourselves, and 
we can help or hinder according to the use we 
make of our thought- forces You need to 
become totally indifferent to results, by culti- 
vating the belief that if you keep poised and 
103 



104 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

comfortable and joyful within, results will 
take care of themselves. Cultivate constantly 
the attitude of health, courage and prosperity. 
These are yours if you will but claim them. 
Assert constantly your mastery over your 
thoughts, your body and your environment. 
Believe and assert that nothing can stop your 
progress, because Divine Power is working 
through you for your unfoldment. When the 
seeming is opposed to this, do not be discour- 
aged, but accept it as a proving time for which 
you will be the stronger after you have over- 
come. All things are promised to him that 
overcometh. Do not fight and struggle, but 
simply reach out in the confident assumption 
that all things are yours. Keep the ideal Self 
constantly in mind — that Self which is spirit 
and which is master over the body and over 
environment. 

Cultivate the quiet attitude of universal love. 
This is the solvent which removes all difficul- 
ties, all fears, all apparently hostile conditions. 
Drummond's Greatest Thing in the World con- 
tains some of the highest lessons we need to 
learn. I would make love even more universal 
and comprehensive than he does, by making it 
include every thing — every state, condition and 
environment. They are all parts of the uni- 



HEALING SUGGESTIONS 105 

versal plan which is being worked out by Love, 
through Love and in Love. It is only by tak- 
ing such an attitude as this that we can remove 
all the friction from life and have that perfect 
harmony which is the kingdom of heaven. If 
you love everything, this will of course include 
your food. It is a symbol of love and life. 
Take it always in this way, and do it for love's 
sake. Dieting can never cure dyspepsia, for 
the cause of the disease is not in food of any 
description, but very often in the fear of food. 
I have no desire to prescribe what you shall or 
shall not eat, but I do want you to attain that 
freedom wherein you may eat whatever you 
wish. You should have that perfect unconcern 
about the whole matter which will enable you 
to sit down to any table and eat in moderation 
whatever your taste calls for. You have the 
right to include in your diet anything, that may 
properly be called food, which you like. We 
may admit that some foods contain chemically 
more of nutrition than others. But in reality 
the chief nourishment comes from the thought 
and spirit with which the food is taken. Any 
food taken with doubt, fear or disrelish, will 
fail to nourish ; and almost anything in the lists 
of food will nourish, if the natural taste is fol- 
lowed and the right mental conditions are ob- 



106 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

served. Our appetites should be strictly heed- 
ed as to quantity and kind. As we come into 
the consciousness that we are spirit, immortal, 
not subject to disease or weakness, all these 
matters of taste and appetite become adjusted 
to this great fact, and it will work out that we 
will choose naturally those things which will 
best minister to the ideal we hold in mind, a 
body that is the perfect instrument of the im- 
mortal self. As long as you admit that some 
kinds of food have the power to hurt you, 
you are still believing in the power of evil, 
and this is a belief that ought to be eradicated. 
We must firmly hold to the belief that good 
is the only power, the only reality. Of course, 
if you choose you can limit yourself to certain 
kinds of food and still be happy ; but you will 
not thus attain the high degree of health, hap- 
piness and mastery which will come from the 
belief in and demonstration of the principle 
that you are spirit, and that spirit is supreme 
over all material conditions. This is the ideal 
condition and if you hold to it, I believe that 
your fears will be gradually dissipated, and 
you will feel free to trust your own desires. 
Until you prove by your actions that you have 
laid aside this anxiety about food which is all 
the time accentuating your condition, you will 



HEALING SUGGESTIONS 107 

not manifest the perfect health which is your 
birthright. 

Yes, I think your experiences have been 
necessary to you as a schoolmaster, and they 
have all been working beneficently to bring 
you to a knowledge of your true self. When 
one comes to that full knowledge and con- 
sciousness, then the soul is completely domi- 
nant. But there are varying degrees of con- 
sciousness and dominance, and you may 
attain what you would now call perfect health 
long before you attain all knowledge. The 
soul awakens gradually to its possibilities of 
spiritual dominion and to power before un- 
dreamed of. All your improvement must 
come through a changed attitude of mind, and 
the attitude which you need to cultivate to- 
ward your physical disease is that it is not an 
evil in itself which is to be removed for its 
own sake. On the other hand, you should 
know that it is the greatest possible blessing 
to you, in that it shows you that there is a 
mental and spiritual inharmony within which 
needs to be remedied. Cultivate indifference 
as to the physical expression, and ignore the 
claims of pain as much as possible, and give 
your thought to the holding of the spiritually 



108 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

perfect ideal within, to the consciousness that 
you are a regnant soul, receiving a constant 
influx of love, wisdom and power from on 
high. This will lead to just the results that 
you need and desire. It will lead to a con- 
sciousness of your supreme superiority over 
all external conditions. It will lead you to 
realize that the cause of all your inharmony 
and unhappiness is in yourself, and not in ex- 
ternal things. 



XII 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 

BY HORATIO W. DRESSER 

[From an address at the Green Acre Conferences, 
Eliot, Maine. Reprinted from Unity, Kansas City, 
Mo., November, 1912.] 

Few scenes in the life of Jesus are more 
deeply impressive than the one in which the 
Master is given opportunity to defend him- 
self, but instead holds his peace, calmly and 
courageously meeting the fate which his ene- 
mies were preparing for him. There had been 
occasions on which he had refrained from vis- 
iting certain towns because of their unbelief, 
and he had gone apart even from his disciples 
that he might pray in solitude and prepare for 
the greater events to come. On occasion, too, 
his ministry among the people implied a for- 
ward look with a purpose other than that of 
the acceptance of events as they came. But 
on this occasion, although he had declared 
that he could summon greater powers to his 
109 



110 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

aid, he meets his adversaries with few words 
and without attempting to secure his freedom. 
Consistently with this acceptance of civil au- 
thority, he goes forward to meet his death on 
the cross, and to the last moment is faithful 
to the principles which as teacher he had enun- 
ciated. Surely there never was a more splen- 
did example of constancy and courage. 

The principle implied in this fidelity to an 
ideal lies at the heart of the Sermon on the 
Mount and of the Master's teaching as a 
whole. It has often been misinterpreted alike 
by so-called Christians and by critics outside 
the faith. The time is opportune for fresh 
consideration of it, in order that we may gain 
clearer insight into the essence of Christianity. 

Without regard to the ultimate nature of 
Christ, one may consider the discourses and 
works by which Jesus sought to establish the 
kingdom of the Spirit. These principles are 
good in their own right as parts of an ethical 
system, and they hold whether or not we deem 
the Master an example whom all can follow. 
The important consideration is that we regard 
these teachings in a spirit which gives the clue 
to the life of Jesus, and indicates possibilities 
that lie open to the devotee of the highest 
moral ideals. Without this spirit we are like- 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 111 

ly to disregard his teachings as impractical, 
assailing them because of their departure from 
the Mosaic law. Clothed by this spirit we 
may make our way where many readers of 
the gospel have never trod. 

We open the pages of the gospel narrative 
and find "the man of peace" moving among 
the spiritually hungry and assuring them that 
the kingdom is "at hand." Whatever this 
kingdom may appear to mean from the point 
of view of various Messianic expectations, it 
signifies that the Master comes in an attitude 
of authority born of experience and convic- 
tion, calling on men to forego their allegiance 
to external things and customs, and look to 
the inmost world of instincts, habits, motives 
and love. Without regard to interpretations 
of the atonement, and independently of any 
view concerning the resurrection, one may in- 
sist that Jesus summons each man to look to 
himself, change his attitude, purify his heart, 
so that he may live a genuinely righteous life. 
It is in this sense, as an appeal to the moral 
heart or will, that I ask the reader to regard 
the discourse anew as if it were a fresh utter- 
ance in modern psychological terms. 

The Sermon on the Mount may not have 
been spoken in precisely the connected form 



112 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

in which we have it in one of the gospels, not 
the earliest, and imperfections may have 
marred the text. However that may be, we 
may estimate it as representative of the life 
and teaching of Jesus as a whole, taking care 
not to single out passages for approval or dis- 
approval to the exclusion of the rest. It 
comes fresh from the lips of the Master, who 
lived by it and proved it by his works. To 
read it with open eye one needs to attain an 
interior vision of the purity of the ideal in- 
culcated, a vision out of the unity of which 
the various precepts may be seen to spring. 

Taking Jesus at his word, let us say that 
his mission was to bring the life of the Spirit 
to men, that they might know and live that 
life in fullness. First and last he attributed 
all power and wisdom to God, humbly main- 
taining that he was obedient to the Father's 
will. Hence he made no claim in behalf of 
his mere self, not even from the point of view 
of goodness, but spoke ever of the central 
source from which all men might receive 
power according to their needs. He invited 
men to come to him as giver of peace, as the 
way, the truth, and the life, but always as to 
the center within all men where the Christ is 
revealed, not as if he wished men to deem him, 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 113 

the son of man, the same as God. The Father, 
invisible in the heavens, yet revealed to each 
man in the holy places of the heart, is ever 
his object of appeal. There is indeed a way 
which leads to the secret place of the soul, and 
the Master fully believes that he it is who 
makes that way known. But the essential is 
the goal — the infinitely tender and loving 
Father whose care is over all His works, and 
the kingdom of righteousness which those en- 
ter who acknowledge the source of all good- 
ness and efficiency. In vain shall we try to 
interpret the darker passages of the Sermon 
on the Mount unless we approach them in the 
light of this interior illumination. 

Turning to the great discourse with this 
clue in mind, we find it not only a guide to 
the inmost life, but see that it is in this inti- 
mately interior sense that the law of love 
comes "not to destroy but to fulfUl." Jesus 
begins by praising those who have been 
touched by the life of the Spirit and are there- 
fore merciful, humble, pure in heart, hun- 
gering and thirsting after righteousness, seek- 
ing to establish peace among their fellows, 
faithful even under accusation and persecu- 
tion. When he promises recompense it is of 
the interior sort. If we are about to fulfill 



114 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

a vow, if we would reform our brothers, he 
bids us remember that we should first adjust 
whatever is not right in our spiritual attitude, 
that we may clearly see how to take the lead. 
So in regard to sin — it is the inmost con- 
sciousness that is of moment; the fact of sin 
is driven home with the pronouncement that 
even to lust in thought is to break the law. 
It follows that purity begins within, and in- 
volves cleanness of heart, thought and action. 
Hence great emphasis is put on the honesty 
or sincerity of the one whose righteousness 
far exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. 
Prayer, too, is genuine only in the light of 
openness and purity of heart; it begins with 
the soul's inmost receptivity and is rather an 
act of adjustment than of petition, since our 
wants are already known by the Father. All 
our judgments or condemnatory utterances 
emanate from within, and inevitably bring 
their like upon us. The possibility of right- 
eous judgment is held up as a standard for 
the attainment of those who exercise their 
moral powers to the full. In so far as an 
external rule may be required, it is given in 
the declaration that men may be estimated in 
accordance with the fruits of their conduct, 
and there are warnings for those who might 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 115 

perchance mistake the false for the true 
Christ. But the center of interest and of con- 
duct is still the realm of motives. In place 
of the anxiety and distrust which so often 
characterize the inner life, one should first 
and last substitute love and longing for the 
kingdom, the pursuit of God and the life of 
righteousness, from which shall follow what 
is requisite for the external life. 

The inner emphasis is also seen in the 
counsel to seek treasures that are eternal in 
the heavens, in contrast with things that 
perish. The difference turns on the fact that 
no man can fully give his consciousness to 
two objects at the same time, and the fact 
that to love the one is to despise the other. 
Hence concentration, the single eye, is abso- 
lutely requisite. Whatever our pretensions, 
it is where the heart is that shows what really 
rules. Hence the special meaning attached 
to all that is said about purity of heart, con- 
stancy in the pursuit of the kingdom of right- 
eousness, even in the face of practical needs 
that apparently call for anxious consideration. 
Sufficient unto the day is its own evil or 
trouble, that is, the problem of the hour. To 
believe in all sincerity in the ethics of the 
heart is to give entire allegiance to the task, 



116 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the opportunity for service just now at hand. 
Our part is to concentrate on the activities 
that are within our power, trusting the results 
as in the keeping of the moral spirit, the 
providence of God. 

One cannot give to the genuinely worthy, 
instead of casting pearls before swine, with- 
out first raising the question, Who is worthy? 
This leads to an estimate of the springs of 
moral action. Hence we are again compelled 
to begin with ourselves. Since we are bidden 
to act as we would be done by, we are con- 
strained to consider what we would really 
wish done unto us. We cannot seriously 
reflect upon this question unless we possess a 
moral ideal. But to be moral is to know the 
self, know what is worthy of realization. The 
self is not an isolated entity, but is intimately 
related to all men. Thus the golden rule im- 
plies the law of service or love. Or, again, 
if assured that by asking we shall receive 
answer, if by seeking we shall find, everything 
will depend upon what we ask for and seek 
in accordance with our ideal. Rightly to ask, 
one must obviously possess a moral standard. 
But this again implies the law of prayer al- 
ready inculcated, since the soul's sincerest need 
has been provided for. Thus each phase of 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 117 

the principle leads back to its center in the 
heart or attitude of the soul. 

The Father's all- foreseeing care pertains 
first to the inner life, the spiritual essentials, 
then to the outer things that are needed or 
are in correspondence. Spiritual joy centers 
above all about the results of fidelity and 
righteousness, including the knowledge of the 
fruits that follow when one is persecuted or 
opposed. These results, hard to bear as they 
may be, are sure signs along the highway of 
the moral life. Straight and narrow indeed 
is that way, yet it is the one that leadeth unto 
life. To let the inner light shine, to practice 
the word, lead the life — this is the one essen- 
tial. The life shows whether or no we have 
found the kingdom. To seek it in absolute 
seriousness is to aspire to be perfect, even as 
the Father in heaven is perfect. 

Now all this strikes to the center and in- 
volves sharp distinctions, calling to account 
those who merely obey the letter of the law, 
exposing hypocrisy, doing away with all com- 
promise. To let one's speech be "Yea, yea; 
nay, nay," discarding all else as evil, implies 
a far keener type of self-examination and 
purification than even the Jews with all their 
righteousness were accustomed to employ. It 



118 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

were easy to love one's neighbor, and despise 
one's enemy. But now comes the admonition 
to love one's enemies and even pray for them. 
How can this be unless one lift the righteous 
life to a higher level by beginning at the in- 
most center? The force of this new command 
will come out clearly if we put it in contrast 
with the ordinary situation in human life. 

What do we usually do when we encounter 
the enmity and opposition of our fellows, 
when people condemn us? If so far civilized 
as to refrain from taking arms and returning 
blow for blow, we rise in self-defense and in 
self -justification, looking after our rights, and 
making sure that our enemy shall not steal in 
unawares. Our courts, our civil customs and 
our affairs in general are founded on the sup- 
position that everything shall receive its equiv- 
alent. We are so accustomed to this basis 
that we unthinkingly assume it to be the only 
law, putting aside unheard any other utter- 
ance on the subject. Likewise in our own 
selfhood we ordinarily meet whatever is hos- 
tile by a show of force, and our moral ideals 
largely center about the belief that fire can 
drive out fire. Immersed in the conflict of 
instincts, impulses, habits, opinions and emo- 
tions, we do not know what else to do. Hence 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 119 

we move forward on the same level, ever 
looking for light there, hoping to conquer 
there. 

But a day dawns when we realize that on 
the lower level there never would be an end. 
The self would never be satisfied, though the 
whole world should sit at its feet in abject 
apology. This is seen in the case of an argu- 
ment where each partner to the discussion 
seeks to come out ahead, but where no one is 
convinced of anything. Now, it requires cour- 
age to "agree with thine adversary quickly, 
while thou art with him in the way," but to 
be willing to make the venture means that 
one is ready to press forward. To remain on 
the lower level is to be sure of one result, 
namely, suffering or reward in kind ; the ques- 
tion is whether by adopting the method of 
love and peace we shall receive the higher 
reward. Jesus assures us that we will, and 
that the Father's care is especially concerned 
with the provisions required on this level. 

It is often said that the command to refrain 
from resisting evil is an impracticable precept 
that might have value in an ideal world, but 
has no meaning in the present social order; 
that Christians do not believe it and do not 
undertake to live by it. Tried in the light of 



120 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the foregoing exposition let us see if we can 
understand this precept. The Sermon on the 
Mount centers, we have seen, about the world 
of motives, promptings, and the tendencies 
within man which impede the righteous life. 
We are justified, then, in regarding this pre- 
cept from the inmost point of view. What 
would it be to restrain ourselves when we are 
tempted to combat evil? What is non-resist- 
ance psychologically? 

In the first place, if we examine our con- 
sciousness, we discover that it is the nature 
of mental life always to be in pursuit, to be 
striving to attain an end. That is, volitional 
activity is central, and pure passivity is im- 
possible. To hold yourself still you must con- 
centrate, and concentration means focusing 
of power. To check an emotion such as fear, 
an impulse such as the tendency to strike, or 
even a thought of the most quiet type, you 
must exert activity. Far more power is often 
required to refrain from giving blow for blow, 
with tongue or pen, than would be required to 
express the impulse. Hence non-resistance on 
the lower level means inhibition or resistance 
from the higher, a checking of the prompting 
by an act of will adequate to overcome it. 
This victory should not be described in nega- 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 121 

tive but in positive terms. The love that hin- 
ders the hate, the spirit of forgiveness that 
overcomes the sentiment of anger or jealousy, 
must be greater in power than its adversary. 
For psychology shows us that the strongest 
motive prevails. The strongest motive is not 
necessarily the most vigorous impulse, but may 
be the moral incentive which overcomes the 
consciousness of that which is by the realiza- 
tion of that which ought to be. Nor does the 
strongest motive necessarily express itself in 
directly observable external conduct. Indeed, 
when a man is most quiet externally, and ap- 
parently least responsive, he may be most un- 
der interior restraint. The greatest power psy- 
chologically resides in the idea or object of 
consciousness which has power to inhibit all 
other ideas or incentives just then active in 
the field of consciousness, and master that field 
by substituting itself. The calmest state, that 
is, calmest at the center, is the one which 
possesses the greatest power and may lead to 
the most far-reaching consequences. What is 
true psychologically is also true spiritually. 
The devotee of the inner ideal looks forward 
to the time when his power of inhibition will 
be such that love shall in every instance be 
triumphant, when there shall be control or 



122 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

poise enough to insure perfect coincidence be- 
tween the divinest prompting and the human 
will. How can the moral ideal be fully real- 
ized in any other way? 

To check the impulse to return blow for 
blow means that the energy immanent in the 
impulse is transformed, or expressed in an- 
other way interiorly. If instead of contend- 
ing with the evil man in his own terms, I 
pause that I may treat him as my brother, 
really feeling love for him — not merely claim- 
ing that I love him — I do not by any means 
assume a passive attitude, allowing him to do 
what he will; instead I give expression to a 
greater power. Whether or not I turn the 
other cheek, or give my cloak also, is a sec- 
ondary matter, and I am not undertaking to 
imitate the letter of the law. The principle 
in question is interior and spiritual, hence 
everything depends upon what I do in spirit, 
whether or not I fall in line outwardly and 
walk with him two miles when he would go 
but one. I cannot help resisting in some fash- 
ion, but am bidden not to condemn him as a 
soul, not to attack him as an external agent, 
or yield in spirit to the temptation to display 
passion in return. As a human being I might 
be merely capable of responding in gentleness 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 123 

and love to those who manifest gentleness and 
love to me; but the divine love to which I 
render myself open is capable of displaying 
love to all, even those who are evil. On the 
higher level I am a recipient of goodness, it is 
the Father who is the giver of life and of 
love. 

The non-resistant attitude is not effeminate, 
but is manly in fullest measure. Meekness 
and humility become powerful when regarded 
in the light of the accompanying self-restraint 
and the inhibition of lower impulses. Non- 
resistance is forgiveness, charity, where ex- 
ternal resistance would be condemnation and 
hatred. It is selective, for there are three 
kinds of resistance and non-resistance, namely, 
physical, mental and moral or spiritual; and 
he who has power to practice non-resistance 
chooses between the three possible forms of 
response. Hence, non-resistance is by no 
means the mild acceptance of circumstances 
which it has been supposed to be. 

Now this method is not so remote from 
common life as it appears, but coincides at 
many points with common sense. Every one 
knows from experience that there are occa- 
sions when it would be useless to intervene, 
people who cannot be persuaded, those whom 



124 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

one could not by any means influence through 
anything external. Consequently one waits, 
depending on silence and the power of exam- 
ple. When misunderstood we learn to bide 
our time, saying not a word, never defending 
ourselves, but continuing loyal to the truth as 
we see it. In dealing with children, we know 
the value of what may be called the flank 
movement in meeting their unruliness, and 
every time we have patience or take thought 
we see the superiority of the gentler method 
by which we guide their interests in another 
direction. 

Intellectually stated, this is the constructive 
method by which we seek the good in others 
and in their doctrines, emphasizing the points 
of harmony and agreement. More thought 
is required to do this, because it is necessary 
not only to note the points of disagreement, 
but to pass reflectively beyond them to the 
larger truth in which they are fulfilled. Hence 
we learn to transcend appearances, no longer 
giving expression to the first opinion that 
may arise in our mind. The implication is 
that ultimately all truth is one, that there is a 
unitary point of view which includes the dif- 
ferences and contrasts which on lower levels 
separate men into sects and opposing groups 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 125 

of various types. Steadily to pursue this ideal 
is to dwell on the spirit rather than the form, 
to seek the universal truth which voices itself 
among all peoples. 

Likewise in dealing with our fellows, when 
we are wise and pause to consider, we pene- 
trate behind appearances to the motive, the 
highest intent or purpose, seeking to judge by 
that. For a man is like society at large in 
this respect — a mere collection of tendencies 
making toward a goal. To love a man, to 
do one's best for him, is to regard him in 
the light of the centralizing ideal toward which 
he is striving. So in the case of one's own 
self: to make sure headway is to let the eye 
be single to the consistent individual we hope 
to be, never allowing ourselves to regard the 
processes of evolution as aught more than 
means to the moral and spiritual end. 

Apply this method to the affairs of the 
nations, and you have arbitration, the ways 
and means of the idea instead of those of the 
sword. It only remains to convince the world 
that this is the true method. 

But what of those who, like Tolstoi, and 
the Quakers, and the Hindoos, undertake to 
live solely and consistently by the principle of 
non-resistance ? Everything depends upon our 



126 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

understanding of the principle as viewed from 
within, whatever we may say of the partial 
successes of those who advocate the principle. 
The real question is, Can one in this world, 
with its insistence on financial and other ob- 
jective standards, live by the law of the 
Spirit? Surely, for this is God's world; the 
real cosmos is moral, spiritual, and there is 
nothing else a consistent Christian can do ex- 
cept seriously to believe the promise that he 
who first seeks the kingdom of God and its 
righteousness shall be provided for. The im- 
portant consideration is that you and I shall 
take ourselves inwardly as we are, consider- 
ing what each must now do in order to lift 
the activities of life to the higher level. 

As a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, 
I should hardly have reason to expect my labor 
to be worthy of its hire, and to bring support 
by the law of moral attraction, unless I do 
what I am best fitted to accomplish with all 
my mind and heart. Hence the significance 
of the prayer, "What wilt thou have me to 
do?" uttered at every turning point in the 
pathway of the soul. What I can best do com- 
ports with the work assigned to my brother 
and my sister. What I am able to give, some 
man needs, and if I hold myself open I shall 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 127 

he led to him who hungers and thirsts. While 
1 do my work there is no tribulation which I 
shall be unable to endure. Yea, the very word 
I should speak will be given me, if only I 
have control enough over my lower conscious- 
ness to pause and seek it. Hence to refrain 
from external rebuke or violence does not 
mean to become empty, but rather to be filled. 

The lower level is merely personal, private, 
exclusive ; the higher is divine, universal, in- 
clusive. When I act on the higher level I am 
not concerned lest justice be not accomplished, 
but I realize that I am acting with the powers 
which make for righteousness. My reward 
will depend upon my zeal, the uprightness and 
purity of my heart. In so far as I fail, the 
one resource is to yield myself more fully to 
the divine promptings of my being. What 
comes in response may sometimes involve suf- 
fering, I may be led into the way of the cross, 
but it will correspond with my present need 
and my present opportunity. 

This principle applies in the economic world, 
also, and the gap between everyday life and 
the life of the Spirit is not so wide as it ap- 
pears. The difficulty is that we have not 
analyzed the situation sufficiently to see these 
relationships from the inner point of view. 



128 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

In fact, the more I give of the Spirit, of the 
morally best, the more generously will my fel- 
lows respond, the better my wares will sell, 
if you please. In the courage and persuasive- 
ness of the man who gives himself fully to 
his cause, who persistently does his work, there 
is a tremendous power. The failures are due 
to half-heartedness and compromise, not, as 
some suppose, to the principle itself. 

But even on the ground of faith, without 
special reference to moral causes, we have 
known of instances which illustrate the re- 
sponse that awaits constancy and devotion. 
Sometimes the man who lives by this principle 
must wait until the eleventh hour, but only 
by so waiting shall he enjoy the full preroga- 
tives of faith. For those who are still in doubt, 
here is the central hypothesis, if you choose 
to call it so, namely, the proposition of this 
sermon that every need has been provided for. 
He who believes that the principle is without 
exception has a rule of life as exact as mathe- 
matics : as we judge we shall be judged; as 
we sow we shall reap; he who manifests de- 
voted love shall be cared for in proportion 
to his consecration. 

The principle, then, is not new, and it had 
long been practised in a measure in the Orient 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 129 

previous to the coming of Jesus. It is not 
dependent on the incarnation, but is univer- 
sally discoverable in human life. In what, 
then, does its special significance consist as ex- 
emplified in the life of Jesus? Not primarily 
in the precept, not in the Sermon on the 
Mount, but in the life of the Master, in the 
power that went forth from him through his 
ministry and the crucial events of his career. 
We have seen to a degree in our own ex- 
perience that there is no surer way to attain 
an end, no greater power over our fellows 
than the way and the power of love, of life. 
Your adversary may confute you on every 
point, or seem to confute you, save so far as 
you have lived, as you have realised, and then 
all tongues are silent, all enemies are disarmed. 
When you comprehend a principle, you are 
not concerned because substitutes appear to 
thrive. In so far as you know truth, you are 
calmly sure that it will triumph by way of its 
own, without defense on your part. Likewise 
when you discern a person's real character, 
you are confident even when this person is 
decried and maligned. Now, if you are able 
to go a step further, and rejoice even under 
persecution, you have touched the confines at 
least of the region revealed to us by Jesus. 



130 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

You will then welcome each event that comes, 
giving thanks that the law is fulfilled, realiz- 
ing that changes for the better will come 
when you yourself change at heart. 

As our elder brother and leader, Jesus walks 
in the way of life, and shows that by utter 
fidelity the supreme goal can be reached. It 
is not the newness of the utterance, I insist, 
not the forms of speech or the precepts, but 
the power of the life which is expressed 
through the various discourses, the good 
works, the fidelity of will illustrated in the 
crucifixion. Thereby a balance of power was 
established which otherwise would have been 
impossible. And why not express this tri- 
umph as the victory of life rather than with 
reference to death through sacrifice? The tri- 
umph is not negative, but positive. It is not 
a question of external defeat, but of the power 
set into activity by the inmost attainment. 
Hence the supreme word is life, life. 

But how shall any one know the law except 
so far as he endeavors to live it in his own 
person, turning directly to the Father as the 
giver of wisdom and power? What is it to 
live by the Spirit of God, to find the kingdom 
to which all else shall be added? Let us say 
in brief that it is to find the inmost center of 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 131 

consciousness, of thought, of feeling, of love, 
and to be able to relate that center to the 
world, to humanity and God. To be centered 
is, as Emerson says, to be "wise and at home 
today." "Lay not up for yourselves treasures 
upon the earth, where moth and rust doth 
consume, and where thieves break through and 
steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in 
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
consume, and where thieves do not break 
through and steal: for where thy treasure is, 
there will thy heart be also." Go to the 
sources of life for yourself, read human his- 
tory, observe the courses of nature and the 
habitual activities of your fellows, enter into 
life reflectively and transform fact into law, 
see the meanings of things. There is no ob- 
stacle to keep you from advancing in this re- 
gion where things eternal are seen. "Ask and 
ye shall receive ; seek and ye shall find." The 
cosmos of the moral order shall be yours if 
you are willing to react upon it, to make it 
your own by purity of thought, word and 
deed. 

You can scarcely look within for a moment, 
or isolate yourself for a season of silent medi- 
tation or inmost prayer, without realizing that 
there are alternatives. To renounce, to dedi- 



132 SPIRIT .OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

cate yourself afresh, or indulge in new reso- 
lutions — however you may state the case — is 
to find that the forces of the lower level rise 
around you, so that you enact the temptation 
over again. The circumstances of our life 
tend, with the steadiest persistence, to draw us 
away and into the whirl. But ever there is 
the contrasting power, the life of the Spirit, 
in silent attendance upon us. 

St. Paul, who in his Epistle to the Romans 
so frequently dwells upon the conflict between 
the good that we would achieve and the unruly 
member which outwits us, evidently held that 
evil could be overcome with good. Hence in 
the hierarchy of values he placed love at the 
head, intimating that a time would come when 
because of the light of love shining through 
our eyes we should no longer see as in a glass 
darkly, but face to face. He who is most 
vividly aware of the conflict may at the same 
time have the clearest insight into the principle 
which brings success. The temptations in- 
crease, the darkness gathers, and the struggle 
becomes more intense as the way of life nar- 
rows. Thus it is St. Paul who has most 
graphically portrayed the contest, and it is 
Jesus who is represented as encountering the 
greatest temptation. Hence, too, it is Jesus 



SERMON ON THE MOUNT 133 

to whom it is given to walk the way of the 
cross to its summit, meeting issues such that 
even in all the power of his knowledge and 
his will he is reported to have cried out mo- 
mentarily to have the cup removed, and again 
as if forsaken. It is the humanness of all this 
that brings the gospel home to us and makes 
us all akin, gives the classic expression once 
for all to the age-long struggles of the soul. 
But it is the humanity of these great contests 
that also makes them forever divine, since in 
the weaknesses and in the power of the soul's 
wrestlings we likewise behold the goodness 
and the love of God. The sons of men and 
the divine Father meet in that creative mo- 
ment, the moment of the Christ, of supreme 
fidelity to the heavenly ideal. 

Well may the critic cry out that this is not 
the Messiah whom he expected. It is no 
wonder that the evasive ones have tried to 
make out that mere acceptance of a creed is 
sufficient, that Christ died for us, that our 
sins are washed away by "the blood of the 
Lamb." It is natural, too, that some should 
depend on the vain repetitions which Jesus 
advises his hearers not to employ. His words 
strike home with tremendous power, putting 
the burden of proof upon us, showing us that 



134 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

in our own efforts at self-cleansing and fidelity 
of conduct salvation lies. Hence the alterna- 
tives are emphasized as never before. The 
man of peace was also he who came to bring 
a sword. The same words that win some 
drive others away. Controversies are aroused, 
enmities result, and even the disciples fall 
away for a time. The conflicts have contin- 
ued ever since. But the triumphant last word 
is the power of the personality, the sweet pres- 
ence of him who could say, "Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest." 



XIII 

THE NEW THOUGHT 1 

BY NANNIE S. BOND 

The thought we are considering is not new 
intrinsically; it is the esoteric teaching of the 
Scriptures of every nation. It has been 
glimpsed by poets, prophets, seers in all ages, 
so that not alone the Bible, but all literature, 
is illumined when the rays of this thought fall 
upon it. Christianity, by the mass of man- 
kind, has been received only in the letter. 
Even when it is interpreted in a so-called 
spiritual sense, the mind has not always 
grasped the esoteric teaching which identified 
it with other religions, for all religions spring 
from one root — God expressing Himself 
through the finite mind. 

There is much that is beautiful, inspiring 
and uplifting in the letter of Scripture, much 
of direct instruction and help; but when we 

1 An address to the Psychomath Society, Waltham, 
Mass., 1898. 

135 



136 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

penetrate into the Spirit and catch glimpses 
of the untold glories of which the letter is 
but the shadow, we can no more rest content 
in the letter than we can live our adult life 
by the scant knowledge and wisdom of our 
childhood. The soul can no more go back- 
ward in manifestation than the tree can be- 
come a seed. The soul is drawn ever on and 
on toward perfection. 

What is this esoteric teaching which con- 
stitutes the basis of the "New Thought"? The 
self is the soul, and is one with God. If the 
soul is one with God, it must contain within 
itself all power and efficiency, and it must 
look within for Truth. 

When this truth with its correlatives is re- 
ceived a new birth takes place in the soul. It 
may formulate itself like this: "Behold, I 
make all things new." I have been in bond- 
age to sensation, and so have been ill ; to wrong 
opinions, and so have been unfortunate. Now 
I make a new world and a new body. At first 
there may be little apparent change in the 
man, but the turning point has been reached; 
he has aroused himself; he has begun to live; 
a sense of security and peace attends his every 
action. Gradually layer after layer of selfism 
is cast off ; personal vagaries, whims and idio- 



THE NEW THOUGHT 137 

syncrasies fall away, and the Soul comes forth 
in all its glory. 

The Old Thought, truth in the letter, sees 
the Promised Land, but cannot enter it. With 
the New Thought we begin the journey 
thither, and our progress is slow or rapid, ac- 
cording as we understand and obey it. It is 
not until one proves the truth of some very 
simple law that he is willing to take the rest 
on faith; then he goes on proving the Truth 
more and more for himself. In the Old 
Thought it is easy to realize that there is 
perfect safety in the spiritual realm for the 
soul which trusts in God. We feel such a 
soul must be protected; we have no doubt in 
the matter. Then this same confidence takes 
possession of us as we think of a soul seeking 
truth for its own sake in the intellectual realm. 
We feel such an one must be protected; he 
can read anything, trusting to the integrity of 
his mind to eliminate error. But when we 
come to the physical plane, a mighty force 
seems pitted against our ignorance, and we 
feel helpless and at the mercy of this force. 
If we walk into the fire we are burned ; if we 
walk into the water we are drowned. At this 
point the New Thought asserts that it is pos- 
sible for the soul to command the mind, and 



138 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

thus enable the body to rise superior to de- 
structive forces. . . . 

The need to look within for truth is very 
apparent, when one reads the mass of books 
and magazines on this subject in circulation. 
There is often so much chaff to one grain of 
wheat. We long to fly to the "Secret Place 
of the Most High," to be free from the "strife 
of tongues." There we can quietly rest our 
mind, and from out the silence that which is 
essential for our progress becomes clear to us, 
and the rest fades away. It is no task to 
read in one line ; the thought slips easily along 
the accustomed channels in the brain. But if 
we would grow into a knowledge of the New 
Thought as it is presented by different minds, 
we must read widely and accept truth wher- 
ever found. Nothing is more fatal to growth 
than to rest in any one's interpretation of 
truth as final. 

We must follow methods and rules, and 
learn the law in this as in all else. Do we 
wish to realize God's presence in our soul, 
we must shut out all unworthy moods, all un- 
worthy thoughts. We cannot find God when 
we are impatient or depressed. God does not 
hide Himself, but we have obscured our spir- 
itual vision and cannot see Him. Do we wish 



THE NEW THOUGHT 139 

to train the mind to see truth, we must obey 
the laws of the mind; we cannot analyze or 
grasp any subject under consideration by let- 
ting our thoughts lazily drift, with no will at 
the helm. Methods for training the mind and 
body are various as given in Metaphysical Sci- 
ence, Theosophy, Christian Science and Men- 
tal Science. Each person pursues the course 
which appeals to him as most reasonable, but 
no one can try any of these various methods 
without benefit and without soon realizing in 
his own changed consciousness that there is 
a potency in these methods which proves the 
existence of law governing the realm which 
before seemed chaotic and confused. 

May it not be that we are to learn that there 
must be development on all the planes — spir- 
itual, mental, physical; that if one is ignored 
it is to the detriment of the rest? "Man shall 
not live by bread alone." Have we not tried 
to do this? 

Have we not neglected to use the force of 
thought on the mental plane, and the power 
of high and lofty moods of the spiritual realm, 
in our government of the physical ? In the in- 
dividual there must be an awakening which is 
felt on all these three planes. Where there is 
Life there is activity. God is Life, and when 



140 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

this Life flows freely through us there must be 
action; there can be no stagnant places, no 
sluggish streams. This Life is a positive force, 
and sweeps away all negative conditions. The 
question of greatest importance to the invalid 
must ever be, How can I receive this Life? 
The law by which it may be imparted by one 
to another is not yet sufficiently understood 
to make its action uniform and available at all 
times ; but some have been able so to grasp it 
as to manifest health in their own bodies, 
though unable to use it with equal success 
under all conditions for others. 

The new psychology, if not an outcome, is 
a co-ordinate factor with the New Thought: 
the one helps the other. From these allies 
we learn that physiological changes are made 
in the brain and body by thought, and that 
this thought, according to its character and 
quality, hinders or helps the working of spirit 
in us; that thus habits are formed, evil is 
rooted out and good established in character. 
Persons who have tried for years by the old 
methods of repression, by prayer and so-called 
religious helps, to overcome certain faults — as 
impatience, irritability, anger, fault-finding, 
depression — find them vanish by the applica- 
tion of a few simple rules which establish real 



THE NEW THOUGHT 141 

physiological changes in the brain and awaken 
dormant nerve-centers in the body. Thus we 
recognize law on the three planes. But we 
must remember that according to the New 
Thought the power operating in these laws is 
soul, that there is no force resident in matter. 
The soul knows itself a child of God, uses the 
mind to think according to this ideal, and thus 
brings about the right action of the forces 
in the body. We may find that what we call 
physiological laws will change with the mental 
and spiritual unfoldment of the race. 

I will try to give some of the rules which 
separate themselves in my memory as most im- 
portant. First, we must take the right con- 
ditions ; there must be peace within and with- 
out. If the truth has been met in the mind 
with argument, this stage must be passed ; the 
noise must cease before one can accomplish 
anything in mind and body. We create our 
own mental atmosphere, and while the storm 
of argument and controversy is raging in our 
mind it is divided against itself. We must 
know that truth is within, and the arguments 
and reasons we present to our mind must be 
convincing and authoritative, before we begin 
to apply any rule for the reception of this 
truth within. Then peace being established in 



142 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the mind, there must be peace without. Some- 
times it seems that to be unselfish one must 
meet every demand made upon him by others. 
Experience teaches that the result of such a 
course is often confusion of mind and appar- 
ent arrest of spiritual growth. The course 
to pursue is a question for the individual to 
decide; but for meditation and concentra- 
tion time must be regularly observed, if only 
for five minutes each day. Effort must not 
be spasmodic, but according to nature. One 
needs to be resolute in cutting away the 
frivolous and trifling claims of persons and 
things. . . . 

The going into the silence may act as an 
agent in restoring health to the body, by de- 
taching us from sensation. According to the 
idealists in the New Thought, this is always 
the end to be sought. Invalids live in thought 
in disagreeable or painful sensations, and even 
when comparatively free from pain, on what 
is called "well days," they still often live in 
sensation by keeping in thought how much 
better they feel. 1 This is far from the normal 
condition. We should be free from con- 
sciousness of sensation either good or bad. 

1 Miss Bond was for many years an invalid before 
she adopted the New Thought. — Ed. 



THE NEW THOUGHT 143 

We should realize that it is soul which feels, 
not body. . . . 

This thought is for those who are athirst 
for truth, for those who have not yet solved 
their life problems. The ideas and opinions 
held by individuals will be modified more or 
less according to their present understanding 
of truth. To some it is but the grafting of 
new fruit, to others it is the uprooting of the 
tree. It sweeps away the old idea of saintli- 
ness; it broadens and expands our ideal; it 
shows us that true spiritual development in- 
cludes physical wholeness. We cannot be in 
bondage to the body and be a "new creature 
in Christ Jesus" at the same time. We must 
meet the requirements or acknowledge our de- 
ficiencies. We can no longer rest content with 
emotional religion, or a religion of sentiment 
or a religion of inward ecstasy; our religion 
must be a renovating power in mind and body 
alike. No idle dreaming for those who stand 
in the ranks of the New Thought, but steady, 
persistent effort in overcoming old conditions 
of mind and body. . . . 

The tendency of the New Thought is to 
simplify. This must be so, for it is a broader 
generalization. The New Thought does not 
limit God. If one has rested in the concept 



144 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

of a personal God, the New Thought will lead 
on to an idea of God beyond all such limita- 
tion. The personal God is simply the picture 
which the finite mind presents to itself of 
Reality. "God is Light, in Him is no dark- 
ness." When the mind would approach this 
Reality it is blinded by excess of Light; the 
mind cannot grasp the great truth of its one- 
ness with God; it must be led on gently by 
the soul. 

As our idea of God is expanded we see man 
in new light. Those powers we have looked 
upon as supernatural we find to be natural 
and inherent in man ; he is potentially different 
as viewed from the New Thought. . . . 

The New Thought teaches us to see God in 
everything. If we see Him in everything, 
there is no evil to us. "When me they fly, I am 
the wings." 1 We find good everywhere, and 
when the New Thought limits itself to one 
interpretation of truth and tells us to walk 
therein, it has ceased to be the New Thought. 
There is deeper meaning in life and a greater 
centralizing force in character, when one thus 
sees God in everything. Then all experience 
translates itself into one language, and our 
philosophy of life is simply this expression in 

1 From Emerson's poem, "Brahma." 



THE NEW THOUGHT 145 

words of individual experience. Experience 
translating itself into thought is thus contin- 
ually adding new stars to our sky. 

The New Thought differentiates persons; 
they become more individualized as they find 
their center of consciousness in God. What is 
more fitting than that the inner worship and 
adoration of each soul should find outward ex- 
pression in appropriate symbols? The church 
and its institutions are these symbols, and each 
soul by its very differentiation should be a 
note in a grand symphony of worship. If we 
find God in everything, in every event and 
experience of life, surely He will be found in 
every religion or philosophy formulated by 
the human mind. We shall find more of His 
spirit in one than in another, but each lives 
by the truth that is in it, not by the error. 
God is not glorified by magnifying one's own 
religion and depreciating his brother's. Each 
man's religion is best for that man at the time ; 
when it ceases to be best for him it will be 
cast aside and a higher form substituted. If 
one holds his form of religion as superior to 
that held by all others, he allies himself to 
the narrow spirit of the Hebrew nation against 
which Jesus put forth all his power, and in 
combating which Paul has given to the world 



146 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

some of the most eloquent passages in his 
Epistles. The lowest form of religion may 
contain some truth which a higher form has 
neglected to emphasize. To those to whom 
public worship is the meeting together of 
persons whose minds are run in the same 
mold, who can think only certain thoughts and 
hold certain ideas, the New Thought stands 
opposed ; for the New Thought in its broader 
sense should make worship possible, though 
each soul worship God under a different sym- 
bol. God may be worshiped in phenomena, 
or worshiped as force back of phenomena, or 
he may be put so far away as to be worshiped 
as the "Unknowable, " or the thought may go 
out to a loving Father as made known by the 
Christ. The symbols are numberless. Even 
the soul which reaches out to a Person on 
a throne is not out of place in the assembly, 
for he is on the way to the true idea of God. 
As a man becomes more individualized he 
should come into closer relations with his fel- 
low beings ; this thought does not separate in- 
dividuals or make the personal tie less. The 
man who uses the New Thought brings all 
persons into right relations with himself ; he 
does not show his sympathy by entering into 
the unworthy moods or thoughts of any one 



THE NEW THOUGHT 147 

about him; he seeks to radiate light which 
shall dispel such mists of mind; he is not in- 
dependent of persons, he sees God in every- 
one ; but if they fail him, he has a sure refuge 
within, so that his peace is constant and undis- 
turbed by outward events. 

To me the knowledge gained through the 
New Thought is a reinforcement of my belief 
in prayer. It is to me as if, through a knowl- 
edge of the right conditions and a knowledge 
of the working of mental and spiritual powers, 
we were learning how to pray, how to use 
this great force we call prayer. As the human 
mind comes more and more to understand the 
working of electricity, it stands amazed at the 
wonders wrought. The force has always been 
here. We are just beginning to know how 
to use it. So it seems with thought and 
prayer; we are just beginning now to under- 
stand what a mighty force is thought, and this 
force underlies prayer. There can be no true 
prayer even in the Old Thought, unless the 
man bring the whole power of his mind to 
bear upon it ; languid petition, doubting, wan- 
dering prayer is but vain repetition, which 
accomplishes nothing. We may pray fer- 
vently for patience, doubting all the time our 
ability to attain that virtue. But let us rein- 



148 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

force our mind by the affirmation of patience 
as already attained, "I am patient," and watch 
the result. We find the affirmation is an added 
power. May it not be because it asserts with 
perfect faith that what is desired is ours ? . . . 
"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. " 
The positive statement is made first. Law is 
the action of God in things. By faith we set 
in motion those laws which answer our prayer. 
Prayer becomes simply the normal action of 
the finite in its reaching to the Infinite. Every 
prayer is answered. We may not always un- 
derstand the answer; it may come in some 
hard experience which forces us to have the 
self-control, the patience, or whatever virtue 
we have desired to possess. But let us keep 
in mind that prayer needs effort. We can 
not rise into the consciousness of the higher 
self where God is, and think our own vain 
thoughts at the same time. We must train 
our mind to obey us. The New Thought 
shows us the way. 

If we have looked upon trials, as sent by 
God ; if we have cherished the spirit which 
hugs them to oneself with the feeling that if 
this special one goes another will come, as if 
God took pleasure in the unhappiness of His 
children ; we have put undue emphasis on the 



THE NEW THOUGHT 149 

text, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," 
and so have considered ourselves, when in 
trouble, as favored of God, then to us the 
New Thought stands opposed. Trials are 
seen to be a necessary stage in the soul's evo- 
lution — means by which God is working in 
and through us to teach us a truth. Thus 
a lesson is learned; trials cease to be judg- 
ments, they prove themselves friends; they 
bring with them the deeper insight into life, 
greater power to help. ... It is often those 
who have suffered most who rest most pa- 
tiently in this Love and Peace. The greater 
souls leave there all pain and suffering in per- 
fect faith, and not only their own suffering, 
but the suffering of the world. They see 
God even in the apparent evil; it is the lesser 
souls that murmur and complain. 

No phrase is fraught with deeper meaning 
than this, "Thy will, not mine, be done." It 
is overlaid in many minds with factitious ideas, 
but its radical meaning is indeed a root thought 
in all religion ; it is the only avenue by which 
real happiness can enter the soul. This is 
so familiarly a truth as to have become trite 
and commonplace to many minds; but the 
New Thought sets it ablaze with a new light 
when it asserts that the Universal Will means 



150 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

perfection on every plane for every individual 
— atom or man. Deviation from this perfec- 
tion, either through ignorance or wilfulness, 
must bring disorder, hence to a self-conscious 
being, pain. The remedy must be the bringing 
of the private will into accord with the Uni- 
versal Will. . . . 

I know no better antidote for any hard ex- 
perience than to feel it is the beginning of 
heaven. It must be, for God is in it and is 
ever waiting in every soul to bring it into 
that state of consciousness we call heaven. 
Life should not be made a continual battle- 
ground ; the conflict between higher and lower 
ought to be a temporary stage in growth. 
When once the choice is perfectly made all 
things are added to the soul. Self-sacrifice, 
conflict, struggle — these are means, not an 
end. In God is Love, Peace, Joy. Let us 
ignore evil, see only good; claim our birth- 
right, as the New Thought is constantly reit- 
erating. This dwelling in thought on limita- 
tion, conflict, keeps the race on this lower 
plane. The soul here and now should begin 
to enter consciously upon that joy which comes 
when desire and will are one — "the angel law," 
as Browning expresses it. We should enter 
the kingdom here and now, day by day lessen 



THE NEW THOUGHT 151 

the sense of warfare and struggle by living 
more and more in the consciousness of the 
higher Self; for that which seems self-sacri- 
fice ceases to be felt as such when the higher 
Self rules. 

Each must build his own world. Let us 
rest on the foundation of a tolerance as broad 
as that inculcated in the Vedas, and rise on 
a love which soars in consciousness with the 
Christ into the very heaven of heavens and 
reaches out and down to the needs of the 
humblest. . . . 



XIV 

CONCENTRATION 1 

BY M. E. CARTER 

Concentration has been defined to be "the ac- 
quirement of a disciplined ability to rivet one's 
attention upon a given and well-selected ob- 
ject." The same authority says "concentra- 
tion, to be really worth ful, must not only be 
rightful as to its object, but persistent in its 
method." "In concentration fix your atten- 
tion upon the one thing which you select as 
the thing you must do" — or dwell upon; — 
"hold firmly to this single idea and pursue it 
steadily, no matter what your outer engage- 
ment may be." This is concentration, and no 
one who faithfully concentrates can fail in 
the attainment of his aim. We are constantly 
met by the declaration, "I cannot concen- 
trate." But a little observation will prove 
that as a rule every one can, and all do, con- 
centrate more or less upon whatever may 

1 From The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, 
October, 1897. 

153 



154 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

specially interest them. The Consecrated soul 
concentrates upon high and noble aims and 
aspirations; and the man whose desire is for 
gold concentrates his thought-energy upon 
its attainment, frequently employing his con- 
centration so assiduously in the direction of 
wealth that he sacrifices home-life, health and 
his peace of mind, only to find at last, when 
he has accomplished the desire of his life, 
that the power to enjoy his wealth has gone, 
and he is himself the anxious possessor of 
millions and obliged to bend all his mental 
forces upon the keeping of his stocks and 
bonds, his houses and lands, his mortgages and 
manifold securities, or insecurities. Too early 
comes failing health, the usual appendix to 
the experience of the multimillionaire. 

Jake another case, the student, determined 
upon intellectual attainment. He, too, focal- 
izes all his energies in one direction, concen- 
trates day and night upon the desired object, 
and just in proportion to the energy and per- 
sistence of the focusing of his thought come, 
sooner or later, the name and the fame he 
seeks. Here again we see, although the aim 
has certainly been higher than that of the one 
who sought for gold, result similar to the first. 

The woman who loves fashion and dress 



CONCENTRATION 155 

and admiration finds no difficulty in concen- 
trating her powers and energies in the direc- 
tion of her desires. She sacrifices home-life, 
the society of her children and all the real 
beauty of living to this one end and aim, — and 
in the same measure that she concentrates she 
accomplishes her object. In all of these cases 
there will of course be disappointment to 
meet and obstacles to overcome, but these will 
usually intensify the concentration and es- 
tablish the will. Coming into conflict with the 
unalterable laws of their being or ignoring 
them for a time, sooner or later the law which 
they have attempted to break scourges them, 
and the penalty is paid to the uttermost, for 
no law of our being can be broken by us. 
Transgression breaks the transgressor, or 
more truly, converts him or her in time. 

A pleasanter illustration of concentration on 
this earth plane is seen in the little child at play, 
when, without any effort, its whole thought is 
centered upon its game, while teachers and 
parents find a strenuous effort necessary to 
attract its attention. Someone has said that 
Concentration in one word expresses "pay- 
ing attention." We pay attention to that upon 
which we concentrate. We pay attention to 
that which interests us. All these cases cited 



156 SPIRIT .OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

are so familiar to us that they need no re- 
inforcement by special instances to prove 
them. They are before our eyes daily. We 
can each and all think of some special interest 
in our lives when concentration of thought, 
purpose and action were no effort, rather a 
pleasure, and we have found ourselves ab- 
sorbed in our thought, work, or pleasure, to 
such a degree that our friends sometimes have 
found fault with us, and wished that we would 
not concentrate so assiduously. 

And yet, in the face of all these incontro- 
vertible facts, we hear frequently the state- 
ment from many intelligent and thoughtful 
people, "I cannot concentrate." The sentence 
is always unfinished and should run thus : "I 
cannot concentrate upon the truth of my 
being; nor upon the life-awakening thought 
of my relation to my Source and what that 
means to me." This may be true to a certain 
extent, but there is not a human being who 
cannot concentrate upon the highest thought 
that he or she may wish and will to concen- 
trate upon, provided the will be trained in the 
direction of aspiration. 

When we begin to realize the truth of Being 
we shall see to it that will and desire are 
conjoined, and the result will be that our 



CONCENTRATION 157 

power of concentration will increase since 
the consciousness will be aroused to seek 
higher realms of thought, and with the as- 
piration and soul hunger arising from knowl- 
edge of what is of value will come a vision 
of the true relation of things and thoughts. 
Then, and then only, can we say, I will think 
upon what I will to think about. And just 
as naturally as we take our food and sleep 
regularly shall we go into the supreme silence 
of our true spiritual being and hold ourselves 
there steadily and calmly, for power, for 
peace, for strength, for usefulness, and for 
all that of which we may at any time feel 
the need. 1 

Some may ask, How can one concentrate 
upon celestial ideas when one's whole life is 
led among things so opposite ? A story is told 
of an active business man who had learned 
to go into the silence for power and guid- 
ance, and who always, while sitting at his 
desk in his office, when the whirl of business 
went on about him throughout the day, if he 
felt the need of instruction or direction, then 
and there, without stirring from his desk, he 

1 The expression "going into the silence" is an 
equivalent among New Thought people for spiritual 
meditation and concentration upon ideal suggestions. 
—Ed. 



158 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

withdrew his thought from the outer world, 
from his desk, his books, and all distractions, 
and went promptly into the silence of his 
inmost self. Regardless of the din of busi- 
ness, regardless of all not within his own di- 
vine consciousness, he sat quietly viewing 
the spiritual vision, listening to the voice 
divine, learning the way to walk surely and 
wisely, and to do the best in the circum- 
stances he was to meet. Thus he sat quietly 
until, taught by that wonderful inner voice, 
he was ready to return to his business duties, 
reinforced and ready for wise action. 

Concentration has been truly named "the 
key to power." Its opposite, scattered, un- 
governed thinking, means weakness, failure, 
disintegration. Concentration, rightly directed, 
leads to knowledge born of the intuition thus 
unfolded. Knowledge and intuition developed 
in the silence teach us the way of salvation 
from all error, and the inharmony that er- 
roneous scattered thinking brings upon the 
ignorant or undeveloped soul. In the silence 
of concentration we become one with the 
great universal Intelligence, knowledge, truth, 
existence and bliss. In the silence the vision 
clears and spiritual things are spiritually dis- 
cerned. The perplexities of the work-a-day 



CONCENTRATION 159 

world disappear, and the wisest and best 
thing to do in any given instance comes to 
us; anxieties flee away; the soul, realizing 
its divine self, serenely watches for its own 
heavenly vision which is ever waiting for 
recognition, and is only hidden by the clouds 
of earth-born thinking. 

This silence has been called going up into 
the mountain. In all the Scriptures the reve- 
lations which have been given to prophets 
and seers have been received by them on 
mountain tops or in still places. One great 
prophet of old, when he went to the mountain 
to listen, heard no Divine Voice in the whirl- 
wind nor in the storm, but the still small voice 
of inspiration came after the noises were all 
passed. When the child of God listens at- 
tentively for the inner voice, then comes the 
peace which passes all understanding. 

One who has often been quoted has said: 
"We must go not only up the mount, climb, 
so to speak, but we must go into it, away from 
sights and sounds terrestrial, if we would be 
shown the pattern of heavenly living and 
thinking, which may only be seen up above 
and in the mountain-top of our loftiest con- 
sciousness, where all things are transfigured 
because the effulgence of the Divine is there 



160 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

flowing forth unobstructed and making all 
things radiant." 

Concentration, rightly directed by the will, 
trained to aspiration, will invariably lead to 
those high peaks of vision where all thought 
is clarified and we see greater and grander 
visions beckoning to us to ascend higher and 
still higher. Only in the silence and on that 
mountain can this transfiguration be experi- 
enced, and the way to this unspeakable knowl- 
edge, existence and bliss is through concentra- 
tion. The mountain heights and the stillness 
are within the soul-consciousness of each and 
every child of God. Seek and ye shall find 
your own divine self ever on the heights, ever 
beckoning you to loftier visions. 



XV 
FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 1 

BY FRED VINCENT FULLER 

"What a man does, that he has. What has he to 
do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let 
him regard no good as solid but that which is in 
his nature and which must grow out of him as long 
as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and 
go like summer leaves. Let him play with them and 
scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs 
of his infinite productiveness." — Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son. 

Man, like a potato, dog, lily and every or- 
ganic thing, grows from within outward; and 
further, the quality and need of his inner or 
spiritual life by grand and exact steps deter- 
mines his external scenery, experiences and 
happiness through an inflexible law of corre- 
spondence and attraction. All who hold to 
their high ideals and wisely cooperate with 
the few great spiritual laws now more clearly 
comprehended than at any previous time, will 

1 From The Journal of Practical Metaphysics, 
March, 1898. 

161 



162 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

see their lives grow complete and harmonious, 
for "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." 
Those lives which are perturbed, eccentric 
and unhappy illustrate the result of antagon- 
izing these great principles of growth through 
lack of knowledge, prejudice, or indifference, 
due to man's yet slight elevation in the scale 
of evolution. In all the New Thought no one 
thing seems so marvelous, even preposterous, 
to me at the start as the statement, "As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he," carried to its 
fullest limits, and that our divergence from 
health, tranquillity, happiness, came from error 
at the center — the domination of wrong 
thoughts, a warped inner life, spiritual crook- 
edness, unreal conceptions of being. Before 
I could fully accept this stern decree of per- 
sonal responsibility, the fact that each man is 
his own calamity-breeder, and the magnify- 
ing of so slight a thing as thinking into an 
irresistible governing force, I had to ponder 
long, read much, and talk with many who had 
long lived among these clear truths and proved 
them in everyday life. For, while this claim 
will bear the closest scrutiny, the result of 
rational thinking and living does not at once 
appear in material evidence, as it is a matter 
of growth like the physical gain in size in 



FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 163 

plant and animal, — a sort of gradual becom- 
ing. Again, in making observations one is 
compelled to judge in most all cases from seen 
effects and appearances, instead of from the 
real motive or thought. Where harmonious 
surroundings and a tranquil, happy nature are 
found together, it has heretofore been ex- 
plained on the materialistic basis, that a man's 
good fortune in life gave him his peaceful, 
happy air. Any observer may know, how- 
ever, from a few keen glances about, that mere 
riches, power or fame of themselves more 
often give discontent and carewornness than 
happiness. A young merchant who thought 
that the possession of $25,000 would make him 
content, worked for that end. When he had 
acquired this amount of money it seemed pal- 
try, and he saw much more was necessary to 
satisfy him, and so he worked on, always about 
to be but never quite contented. Power and 
fame in the same way flit alluringly before 
one, but when attained never satisfy ; nor can 
the possession of material things alone give 
happiness, and in the fact that happiness is 
a matter of mood, dependent upon simple and 
interior things which can be had by all with- 
out price, is the wisdom of Omnipotence 
shown. 



164 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

It is becoming more and more known that 
a strong, poised, sunny child of harmony has 
good fortune, peace, abundance in health as 
accessories to his clear inner life, and because 
through knowledge or instinctively he has 
"hitched his wagon to a star/' perceiving "that 
the mind that is parallel with the laws of na- 
ture will be in the current of events, and strong 
with their strength." 

Emerson says, "A man's fortunes are the 
fruit of his character"; therefore, if one in 
taking account of his gifts in life finds not 
a satisfactory grouping of desirables about 
him, let him know that he can draw and attract 
more happy events into the circumference of 
his life by setting his center right, by deserv- 
ing more, although he should know also that 
happiness is a subjective condition, a mental 
state, a matter of mood wholly independent 
of things. Let him displace anger, envy, 
doubt, fear, uncharitableness, by dwelling 
upon and practising their opposites. Let him 
be poised and trustful, and know that his gain 
and enlargement of life will be slow but grand, 
that thinking fine and high on Tuesday will 
not cause gifts to fall at his feet from out 
of a clear sky on Wednesday. 

If fortunate conditions already attend him, 



FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 165 

then let him know that these manifest through 
law, and that he need not, with the apprehen- 
sion of a timid man walking on a steep side 
hill, dig in and cling and strain to hold what 
is his very own, for if things belong to him he 
is upheld by universal law, and if they don't 
they must depart anyway. To be sure, untold 
thousands of men think in their own hearts 
that they barely maintain their social and busi- 
ness positions in life, whatever they may be, 
except by brutal force, strife and gnashing of 
teeth; and because the aspect of the whole 
world of circumstances is fluid and change- 
able, and everything reflects back to them their 
own fierce mood, this idea of strife becomes 
really true to their eyes, for everything they 
see proves their fixed idea that life is a battle, 
and furnishes another of the innumerable ap- 
plications of Emerson's masterly assertion 
that "what we are, that we see." 

A good example of the law in a large way 
of the internal controlling the external is found 
among the Friends, whose inner lives, habits 
of waiting upon the Spirit, and ways free from 
contention drew to them a good measure of 
worldly things, sufficient for their needs and 
comfort. They were more free from diseases 
than other classes of people and their average 



166 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

age was longer. Had they consciously known 
and practised to a still greater extent these 
principles, their example might have been yet 
more striking. Every strong and unique life 
has become so through following its high lead- 
ings. Christopher Columbus, Michael Angelo, 
Phillips Brooks and every life of worth are 
further illustrations of the law of the mate- 
rialization of the inner, and we are now ready 
to be taught that friction, outward strife and 
rush which have so long been deified by self- 
made man were hindrances, not aids to the 
complete realization of their fullest individu- 
ality. A man merely rich in money and poor 
in everything else that yields wholeness can- 
not be taken as an illustration of the working 
of this law ; nor can he pass as a fortunate or 
successful person, for this sort of wealth which 
is not synonymous with tranquillity comes and 
goes through the minor and temporary attrac- 
tions of a lower plane. 

Here you will say that you know many good 
people who are bound to hard, biting condi- 
tions of life ; and this easily appears so at 
first glance, but "good" in the old, dreary, 
material sense is not synonymous with the 
spiritually vitalized life, free from fear, fret, 
discontent, shining with thanksgiving and ap- 



FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 167 

preciation, and in the sweep of "the sublime 
laws which play indifferently through atoms 
and galaxies." 

Why thought must be the controlling force 
can be clearly shown. If God exists and 
stands for order and justice, then all must be 
right and good on its plane as interpreted by 
evolution, while inflexible law and justice must 
be supreme and all-pervading whether per- 
ceived by us or not, and no confusion exists 
in reality. This omniscient and omnipotent 
law of compensation, if it runs through and 
regulates all human affairs, must operate 
through some substance or force which lies 
at the very source of all human acts and 
effects, and not from the appearance or seem- 
ing of things as indicated by results alone as 
man judges. On close analysis it will be seen 
that one cannot go behind thought or motive 
for the cause back of every effect and event 
in the drama of life ; and often we have found 
that when the real motive was seen our verdict 
based on appearances had to be reversed. A 
man goes back after thirty years to his native 
town and builds a library. The town throws 
its hat into the air and says, "How generous ! 
how noble!" and calls for his canonization. 
Of itself library-giving is certainly praise- 



168 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

worthy, and yet despicable motives may have 
prompted the act if they could be revealed. 
Had you access to his thoughts, you might 
have seen that the gift was made for self- 
glory, or as a step toward political prefer- 
ment. The real thought and motive of this 
action and every other are, however, truly 
and indelibly registered in this man's own con- 
sciousness, adding buoyancy always to him 
spiritually, and thus adding to or subtracting 
from the time of his final wholeness of happi- 
ness, and the things thereto pertaining. 

We now perceive that a self-recording judg- 
ment attended by exact justice can be rightly 
made by and through thought only, for the 
effect, appearance, occasion, act, may play a 
part, while the origin or thought preceding 
every event and act is perfectly and automat- 
ically registered by the stylus of memory on 
the tinfoil of consciousness, and is never de- 
ceived. 

Mere thinking may seem to be as unsub- 
stantial as the wind that blows, but from it 
everything accomplished by man first springs. 
The towering building, bridge, splendid statue, 
machine, were first conceived in thought and 
then externalized by patient effort. Emerson 
grasped the fact that thought was everything 



FROM WITHIN OUTWARD 169 

in the final analysis and said, "Thought is 
the wages for which I sell days." Again rec- 
ognizing the creative, magnetic, attractive 
power of thought he says, "Nature is not, 
therefore, your own world. As fast as you 
conform your life to the pure idea in your 
mind, that will unfold its great proportion. 
A correspondent revolution in things will at- 
tend the influx of spirit." How sublime is 
this law of spiritual gravity by which we rise 
into harmony or fall into discord, and which 
we have just learned to know and apply to 
daily life. We embrace it in glad appreciation 
and with the humbleness that Newton felt 
when he tore the curtain of ignorance away 
from the law of gravitation and it stood 
nudely revealed before him. Like other 
mighty universal principles, this great law of 
correspondence and attraction by which the 
spirit draws its own embellishment is absolute 
in action, as noiseless as the mighty forces 
which daintily whirl and balance worlds, as 
invisible as steam, wind and ether, and as 
unerring as the instinct of electricity when 
instantly it chooses of many wires the shortest 
one to earth. 

In each generation a lonely Emerson has 
awakened and gazed with shaded eyes on 



170 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

new bits of dazzling truth, and then has un- 
derstandingly passed them over to his age; 
but nothing which came with its faint birth 
cries into humanity's past, or can come to a 
God-sharpened soul of the future, will add 
more to the felicity of the race than the wide 
recognition and persistent application of the 
fact that a man's happiness and welfare are 
thrown off from and absolutely revolve about 
his inner thought-life, thus rendering him 
master of his fate. 



XVI 
IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 

BY SUSIE C. CLARK 

[Miss Clark, for many years a successful prac- 
titioner and author of books on mental healing, is 
one of those who find intimate relation between the 
New Thought and the higher phases of spiritualism. 
As she stands somewhat apart, she ventures freely 
to express her reaction upon the mental healing 
movement as a whole. In the following address, 
delivered in one of the conventions, she indicates 
possible shortcomings in the typical doctrine, once 
known as "Mental Science."] 

A perfect unity is possible in a wide diver- 
sity of thought, opinion, and method: a unity 
of purpose, aim, and pleasant comradeship. 
In differentiation of thought is wealth; con- 
formity breeds stagnation always. The med- 
ical regime often counsels a counter-irritant, 
therefore it is well perhaps that a field-laborer 
who has been regarded as something of a 
heretic in strictly metaphysical ranks — a little 
outside the pale of good and regular standing 
— should be so kindly welcomed into this noble 
171 



172 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

company of strong, conscientious workers that 
the depth and sincere fervor of her heresy may 
be outlined. 

Mental Science has a pure and beautiful 
record as an evangel of freedom and uplift- 
ment to the human race. In the few years 
since this system of pure, strong thinking and 
righteous living has gained wide acceptance, 
how many hearts it has blessed; how many 
minds it has educated and illumined; how 
many impotent and suffering bodies have its 
blessed ministrations raised to usefulness and 
power! And this glorious work has hardly 
begun. God speed it onward, and bless every 
one of the noble exponents thereof who mar- 
shal under its banners ! And, in the fulness 
of time, may their beneficent eyes be cleared 
of all astigmatism; for the Mental Scientist 
of yesterday (we should hardly like to say of 
today) has too often worn near-sighted glasses, 
thus limiting his range of vision. 

"All is Mind." (I quote from a Mental 
Science writer.) "This is the basis of Men- 
tal Science teaching, and proves to be infallible. 
From it proceed the very issues of life, includ- 
ing health, wealth, and happiness." Now, shall 
we accept unquestioned this "infallible" state- 
ment? Is Mind the "All" of life or causation ; 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 173 

and what is Mind ? While we are aware that 
the metaphysician claims for this affirmation 
of Being more than the generally accepted 
definition of mind, which designates it "the in- 
tellectual and rational faculty in man; that 
power which conceives, judges, and reasons" ; 
and that the metaphysician includes in this 
term the spiritual nature, even the soul, yet 
mind never can adequately and correctly de- 
fine or become the vital force and energy, the 
immortal part of man — that intelligence which, 
unlike mind, is independent of any mortal 
existence or embodiment: the spirit. 

"The spirit never was born; the soul began 
to be, never" ; while mind is the result of this 
potential spirit essence breathing upon the 
material elements of the brain, as it does in 
the babe, until the mind, with its wondrous 
power of thought ... is gradually evolved: 
the child's spirit — its vital spark of Life from 
the primeval Flame — being the same at every 
age. That expression of Being, therefore, 
which we call mind is thus dependent for its 
existence on the body and belongs to the body ; 
its action is strictly mechanical, and too often 
material. For while the mind has an inner as 
well as an outer gate, a diviner part which, 
aided by another faculty, intuition, may re- 



174 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

ceive messages of supernal wisdom, yet the 
pendulum of man's mentality is always apt to 
sag a little on the external plane. 

Mind alone is wholly inadequate to express 
the idea of an immortal essence. Spirit is 
the breath of Life, the only reality, the un- 
conquerable power. Mind is dependent upon 
the senses and outer nature for its excitation 
and unfoldment. Spirit is always the same, 
whether seeking expression in form of arch- 
angel or man ; while Soul, the primal entity, 
is as unlike Mind as the sun is unlike the bit 
of glass whence its rays are reflected. "Soul 
does not, like mind, depend upon matter — does 
not, like the spirit, diffuse life through matter 
— but it is the uncreated perfection of being. 
The soul is God in us." The mind and the soul 
are not even close friends. For atheists and 
materialists who reason exclusively from the 
mind usually, if not always, ignore the verity 
of an immortal soul. . 

Does this not prove the inadequacy of our 
"All is Mind" statement? Does it not suggest 
that while a growth from the old race-error 
of a belief of life in matter, and of physical 
causation, is a most necessary and encourag- 
ing stepping-stone in human progress, the 
close adherents of such theory have withdrawn 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 175 

only one step from the physical plane to the 
mental, and there are many spiritual heights 
beyond that await our advancing feet, from 
whose altitude our mental state will then be 
a purified, illumined reflection of the spiritual 
grasp and unfoldment — as a strong, healthy 
body is the reflection of an enlightened mind? 
As the eye is the material lens of the mind, 
so the mind is but a lens projected by the 
spirit for use on this plane of existence. "The 
mind is but the trestleboard, on which the 
spirit with electric pen carves out its plan." 
Thoughts, verily, are "things," or, better, 
forces — the causative energies that materialize 
all things ; but the brain is always acted upon : 
never does it act per se. 1 Thought is really 
spirit-vibration moving the brain to action. 
Then does it not follow, fellow-workers, that 
to take up the thought of a patient does not 
reach the plane of causation ? The brain does 
not create or produce thought, but reflects 
the intelligence of the spirit — sometimes its 
own incarnate spirit, often also that of spirit 
^^rcarnate. 2 

1 The statement that "thoughts are things" was 
made popular by Prentice Mulford, author of various 
booklets once widely read. — Ed. 

2 Miss Clark finds truth in the idea of spirit- 
obsession. — Ed. 



176 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

There is always a cause back of mind. The 
spirit when using its spiritual form has its 
own eyes and ears and feelers — invisible an- 
tennae, which are quite independent of mental 
action. In retreating one step from the phys- 
ical plane, let us take another and a higher 
step also, since all one-idea systems fall to the 
ground sooner or later — as they should — or, 
better, yield of their harvest and fruitage to 
enrich a broader, grander successor. The soul 
has other avenues of manifestation than the 
mind. Shall we allow its expression to be 
narrow and one-sided ; shall we fail to use our 
valuable and practical psychic powers in con- 
junction with mental attributes? Psyche 
clearly means soul; and are we not a race of 
souls? Then is there any discredit in using 
our soul-powers? Yet the very word "psy- 
chic" is tabooed as something uncanny. Some 
of our best metaphysical authorities — teachers 
and authors of our literature — have counseled 
pupils to have nothing to do with the psychic 
plane, as it tends to "unbalance the mind." 
Poor, defenseless Mind — this Mind which is 
"All" ! impotent soul, which can only guard 
its purity and safety by burying part of its 
talents in disuse ! Yet it has sometimes been 
noticed that, when the mind of the patient is 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 177 

particularly unbalanced, the psychic healer is 
best qualified to diagnose and meet his need. 

There is another modern school of thought, 
which may have gone, I admit, to the other ex- 
treme and overcultivated the psychic plane to 
the neglect of mental and spiritual unfoldment ; 
but, remember, worthy confreres — when you 
state upon your program that this metaphysical 
expression of Truth is "the grandest move- 
ment of modern times" — that the mighty wave 
that swept over the world with the "dawning 
light" of 1848 has made your own position 
possible. And it is a movement that, by the 
way, like John Brown's soul, is still "marching 
on." It was the first movement since the 
apostolic age to incorporate healing as an ex- 
pression and a part of its religion; it is the 
true mother of all modern schools of healing, 
or reform — even though children sometimes 
outgrow and even disown their parents or out- 
step them in practicalization of advanced 
thought. 1 But the blows of persecution, ob- 
loquy, and scorn, with which an ignorant world 
always meets any message that comes to bless 
it, fell not first upon your shoulders. There 

^What Miss Clark here states is true of spiritu- 
alism, the movement to which she refers, but the 
mental healing movement in general had an indepen- 
dent origin in the work of P. P. Quimby. — Ed. 



178 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

have been martyrs for Truth's sake, bearing 
another name, who have made the path easier 
for your valiant feet to tread ; and they have 
left a wealth of experience, of spiritual dis- 
covery, which it is not wise carelessly to ig- 
nore, whose appropriation and application in 
the practical work of healing, as in the broader 
field of teaching the word of an all-inclusive 
Truth, would greatly enhance the power and 
usefulness of the worker — would open a new 
world (the real world) : a new realm of causa- 
tion to his spiritual discernment. Not all is 
Mind ; spiritual unfoldment never can be 
gained on the mental plane. 

We have another cornerstone : "All is good ; 
there is no evil." How do we know that all is 
good, since we can know nothing except by 
contrast — through antagonism of ideals? If 
we tasted only sugar, how could we know 
sweetness? If there never had been pain, 
how could we realize immunity therefrom ; 
how claim the possession, thank God, of per- 
fect health ? If there were no error to be over- 
come, no so-called sin in the world, the moral 
element would be lacking, however upright the 
conduct. It is only under the polishing-wheel 
that the diamond reveals its brilliancy. Man 
is allowed to suffer from the violation of law 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 179 

(which we call sin) in order that he may gain 
knowledge, not only of those laws, but of a 
power within himself to overcome — a power 
that is one with Omnipotence and makes of 
him a co-worker with the Infinite plan and 
purpose : a god in embryo. All the promises 
are given to him that overcometh. Then how 
can we gain the palm, the robe, the new name, 
the privilege to "go no more out" into earthly 
embodiment, if there is no evil, nothing to 
overcome, no chance to win the victor's 
crown? Even the Christs are perfected 
through suffering. Not that there is an ab- 
solute element of evil, even though we recog- 
nize it on the plane of existence; for that 
which seems such to the finite mind is not evil 
in the realm of the Infinite. Like the green 
apple, it represents the best possible condition 
before ripeness obtains. But in the moral 
realm there must be a shadow; and if there 
must be a seeming evil to test the efficacy of 
good, then there must be in the existence of 
error a divine purpose that should command 
our recognition and respect. 

Can you not imagine an archangel so pure 
and exalted in celestial realms, so yearning 
over those mortals now slowly climbing to- 
ward the height he has won, that he would 



180 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

voluntarily decide to descend and become the 
shadow of the One Great Light, which none 
might perceive but for the dark background 
his Christly sacrifice would provide? Thus 
reads the legend of Lucifer, the fallen star, 
a personality so erroneously maligned because 
Isaiah, by bold metaphor, addressed the king 
of Babylon thus : "How art thou fallen from 
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning" ; where- 
upon Tertullian and Gregory the Great fast- 
ened upon the conclusion that "Satan" was 
meant by Lucifer — a mistake perpetuated and 
immortalized by Milton in his "Paradise Lost." 
But Lucifer is properly the designation of the 
morning star, the Light-bearer, and this is 
what so-called evil is — the Light-bringer, the 
Light-producer after the conflict is past ; there- 
fore, in the final analysis, all is Good. When 
once the Light is perceived, all shadow of 
human ignorance is replaced by knowledge, 
bondage by freedom, temptation by victory. 
The mission of the Christ was not to bear the 
responsibility of our sins and errors for us, 
but to increase our responsibility by showing 
us the possibility and power of conquest. We 
are to conquer the world and its unripeness, 
not to flee from it or deny it away by denying 
the existence of error. It is not necessary to 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 181 

sacrifice one's common sense to become a met- 
aphysician — or a psycho-physician, which is 
a better word to represent an all-inclusive 
work. Then — 

"Shake hands with pain, give greetings unto grief— 
Those angels in disguise; and thy glad soul 
From height to height, from star to shining star, 
Shall climb and claim blest immortality." 

— an immortality to be consciously entered 
upon, now and here. 

It is always what a healer is in spiritual 
consciousness and soul-unfoldment that de- 
cides his power, rather than anything he does, 
or says, or thinks and believes. The mind has 
indeed power to cure or to kill; but to work 
solely on mental levels, to search for and try 
to "take up the right thought" as an antidote 
to that particular phase of wrong thought 
which the patient is holding, is not far re- 
moved from the attempt of the medicine man 
to decide on just the right composition of 
drugs to hit a certain form of disorder. 

Mind-healing, while most beneficent and 
valuable, is always limited; there are some 
cases that cannot be reached through vibra- 
tions caused by the strongest and most en- 
lightened thought. The work of the enfran- 
chised spirit is boundless, since the truly 



182 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

spiritual healer annuls, so far as possible, his 
own personality and mentality and serves as 
effortless transmitter of the healing influx that 
flows from the Great Spirit alone — thus reach- 
ing the fainting spirit of the patient, binding 
it back again in strong reunion with its Source, 
divorcement from which is the only cause of 
all illness, or prostration : the human sense of 
separateness from that Divine Energy, that 
all-pervasive Life which we call God. The 
healer never heals: the patient regains his 
birthright. 

T and my Father are one." This is the only 
infallible panacea for all suffering and unrest. 
I, the minute spark, am enkindled from that 
quenchless Flame whence Life is born. Dis- 
ease cannot assail one whose feet are planted 
on this rock, who feels momently the incoming 
of this mighty tide, who has gained the con- 
sciousness of impregnable divine union — the 
pattern set for us by the Christ: "I and my 
Father are one." With this conscious at-one- 
ment, there would be small need of hunting 
for jealousies, anger, or other mental foibles, 
which are causative and undeniably create 
bodily conditions ; but thought is only the 
ripple on the surface of the vast ocean of Ideas 
innate in the soul. 



IS MENTAL SCIENCE ENOUGH? 183 

Is, then, Mental Science enough? Is any 
one translation of truth enough while a 
broader, clearer interpretation of Deity's 
mighty message is possible? No Mental Sci- 
entist is content to linger in the light of this 
rosy dawn while the effulgence of cloudless 
noon beckons him onward. We must out- 
grow labels and narrow classifications — be 
broadly open to every message of Wisdom, 
even if it come from a source toward which 
our attitude has been hitherto one of prejudice, 
misunderstanding and scorn. Truth-seekers 
should be eager to catch its every accent, 
should be hospitable to its every phase — recep- 
tive to all. The different pathways to the goal 
are all necessary and full of beautiful altruistic 
service to humanity. But let us make those 
paths broad, open to every avenue of truth, 
radiant with the light of inspiration, by which 
a grand, comprehensive development shall be 
insured for each individual worker. 

My prayer would voice the fearless senti- 
ment of one of our nation's heroes : "Give me 
liberty" — the broadest freedom to grow in 
every direction, to use my spiritual eyes and 
ears, to unfold and wield each psychic gift 
and attribute ; I might even claim the blessed 
privilege to co-operate in my efforts for hu- 



184 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

manity with wise, grand souls no longer fet- 
tered by the flesh, as are we ; then give me this 
"liberty or give me death. If this be treason" 
— if this be heresy — "make the most of it." 1 

*A11 New Thought leaders would accept the 
"heresy."— Ed. 



XVII 
CRITICISMS OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

BY HENRY WOOD 

[The following is condensed from a letter to the 
Editor of the Boston Transcript, July 27, 1901, an- 
swering a critic of the New Thought.] 

The article in the Transcript entitled "Chaff 
in 'New Thought' Wheat," though devoted 
particularly to chaff, uncovered some good 
grains of wheat. The critic would hardly be 
a critic if he did not discover what he was 
looking for. Chaff is essential in the produc- 
tion of wheat, and is therefore an inevitable 
accompaniment in its growing stages. Not 
until it has "gone to seed" is the chaff fully 
eliminated, and the New Thought is far from 
having reached that finished condition. Not 
only new institutions, but old and even good 
ones contain a portion of chaff. It is like the 
background in a picture, useful as a contrast- 
ing accessory. Everything has its husk, and 
it may be assumed that the very process of 
separation emphasizes the preciousness of the 
pure grain. But it is a question of proportion ! 
185 



186 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

and is it not possible that the writer slightly 
overdid the matter of chaff? 

I would be the last to deny that extrava- 
gances and even excrescences have attached 
themselves in some measure to the New 
Thought. But they form no part of its vital 
principles, and are only incidental accretions 
which are common to all new movements in 
their initial stages. Aside from its therapeu- 
tic possibilities, as proved by numerous prac- 
tical demonstrations, it embodies a great and 
general reaction against the prevailing mate- 
rialism which has characterized the closing 
part of the nineteenth century. Reactions may 
go too far, but they soon regulate themselves 
from within. By a subtle evolutionary selec- 
tion the truth inevitably comes to the surface. 

Some of the points made by our able con- 
tributor make it appear that she is hardly 
familiar with the broader and more rational 
aspects of the new philosophy. It must be 
borne in mind that this is no cult, in the sense 
of having any central authoritative creed or 
specific formulated system. If so, criticism 
could be more definite. It is rather a great 
spontaneous trend, an impersonal movement. 
It is free from dogmatism, and so permeated 
by an evolutionary optimism that it sees the 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 187 

good even in everything and everybody which 
most actively opposes it. 

In the article under review, it is assumed 
that the "All-is-spirit" philosophy properly be- 
longs to the New Thought. Among a some- 
what extensive acquaintance with its most 
prominent exponents I know of none who 
hold such a view. Matter is regarded as ex- 
pressive, secondary, and resultant, but by no 
means as unreal. In its proper place and re- 
lation it is good and useful. Man is the normal 
and rightful executive of his physical organ- 
ism, and not its subordinate, nor the slave of 
its sensations. But progress in this rational 
adjustment is admittedly gradual, in accord 
with well-understood spiritual law. This law 
is scientific ; but, owing to the submerging ma- 
terialism of generations, no one at present can 
perfectly utilize it. 

\ word upon "repulsion." Is there not 
enough of it without any further endorsement 
or cultivation? Is it not responsible for all 
the wars, conflicts, hatred, and selfishness in 
the world? The law of human solidarity is 
now recognized as the future ideal and inspira- 
tion. Only the cultivation of oneness of feel- 
ing will hasten the consummation. 

The New Thought should be no fad, hobby, 



188 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

or narrow unrelated theory. If not confirmed 
by experience, analogy, and well-ascertained 
spiritual law, it will shortly go the way of 
all error. To be of practical value, any truth 
must be wrought into daily life. The spiritual 
basis of all things is more and more in evi- 
dence, and the general trend of scientific de- 
velopment and discovery is distinctly in this 
direction. 

The New Thought legitimately contains no 
shadows of asceticism or morbid other-world- 
liness. . . . All growth is from within out- 
ward, and not from external accretion. The 
divine processes of nature are vital and not 
mechanical. The incubus of materialism has 
weighed heavily upon science, ethics, theology, 
and sociology; but they are surely emerging. 

External organization is but little depended 
upon for the spread of the new movement. It 
is not aggressive, not a sect, and no rival to 
existing religious organizations, but rather 
vitalizing and complementary. Its rapid prog- 
ress is in the nature of an esoteric leaven, 
transforming without observation. Therefore, 
the great magnitude of the movement is quite 
unappreciated by the general public. 

The evolution of the higher life is in per- 
fect correspondence with unfolding principles 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 189 

upon the lower planes. The spiritual is the 
lawful upper zone of man's nature. Any in- 
version of this relation produces discord. 
When, in the ruling consciousness the ideal 
order is set up, the change is expressed and 
indexed in the external man. The cultivation 
of an inner supremacy is as normal as the 
growth of a tree, and involves nothing that is 
strange. 

Outcroppings of "miraculous" or "super- 
natural" healing continually occur in response 
to the compelling force of superstition and 
credulity, but the modus operandi is unrecog- 
nized. If mental action with such a basis 
possesses so much energy, what about an in- 
telligent basis of truth? Surely, the moral 
order has not put a premium on superstition. 
. . . Only an orderly interpretation of ad- 
mitted facts is what is lacking. Electricity 
has laws, and through conformity therewith 
we utilize it. Is it not our privilege to so 
employ the beneficent forces of mind and 
spirit? ... It should not be forgotten that 
the inherent beauty and power of the New 
Thought must be subjective and experimental, 
in order to be appreciated; for no mere in- 
tellectual survey, from the outside, will reveal 
them. 



190 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

[The following, from "The New Thought and 
Common Sense," contributed by Mr. Wood to The 
Higher Law, Boston, June, 1900, also answers the 
usual criticism.] 

Much ill-founded and unnecessary prejudice 
is aroused against the higher philosophy of 
life by unqualified statements which are be- 
yond present conditions and above the view- 
point of ordinary observers. The claim of 
extravagant present realizations often comes 
from well-meant but in reality hyper-en- 
thusiasm. 

Extremes always beget opposing extremes. 
High abstract propositions are abstractly cor- 
rect, and under favoring conditions in the fu- 
ture will be demonstrable. But to affirm them 
positively to one who does not understand 
idealism, without discriminative interpreta- 
tion, is unwise. The greatest of human 
teachers voiced this sentiment in exact terms. 

That the primary causes for physical con- 
ditions are inherently mental is true, but it 
does not follow that the body can be changed 
"while you wait" by a superficial change in 
the mind. Logic is good, but it is subject to 
abuse. Because a man can lift three hundred 
pounds it does not follow that he can lift three 
thousand, even though the principle be the 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 191 

same. Idealistic statements, true in a certain 
sense and of great utility when understood, 
may be harmful and repulsive when made to 
a "realist" ; for to him they are lies. 

As a consequence of general erroneous im- 
pressions regarding the claims of the present 
evolution of metaphysics, the New Thought, 
there is probably hardly a writer or teacher 
of the principles of mental causation who has 
not often had presented a supposed "poser" 
something as follows: "How about poisons, 
stimulants and contagions?" 

The few suggestions here presented are 
designed for the benefit of extremists on both 
sides. Let the advocates of a practical ideal- 
ism on their part remember that but few 
occupy their standpoint. Ideals are abstract 
realities now ; their outward actualization 
must be gradual and this should always be 
made clear. If Paul attained such a spiritual 
consciousness and control as to render the bite 
of a viper harmless, it does not follow that 
every one who has started in the New Thought 
can or should cultivate the intimacy of that 
kind of a reptile. Can every writer be a 
Shakespeare or every speaker a Demosthenes ? 
The law of spiritual accomplishment may in- 
clude perfect immunity from harmful viper 



192 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

bites; but only the rarely developed expert 
can grasp it, the law, as an efficient weapon 
and wield it, the force, with perfect dexterity. 
But the degree to which each one can utilize 
it will ever grow toward his ideal, even though 
on the present plane of existence he may never 
reach it. Let one's responses to sceptical in- 
quiries always be fitted to the questioner's 
plane of observation. 

Turning briefly to those who think the well- 
known effects of poisons, stimulants, and con- 
tagions disprove the law of mental causation, 
and hold that their physical phenomena are 
due to chemical or direct potency per se, let 
us reason together a little below the surface. 

The physical body, one second after it has 
been laid aside by the conscious and subcon- 
scious man or mind (a process called death), 
is utterly unresponsive to poisons, stimulants 
and contagions. May it not be fairly inferred 
that former responsiveness came through the 
subconscious mind rather than merely by di- 
rect physical contact? The principle in the 
case was clearly the seeming intermediary. 
While immediately after "death" all the phys- 
ical constituents remain intact, that through 
which outside agencies — as occasions — gained 
their potency has been removed. In other 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 193 

words, the cause has gone. Causes and oc- 
casions must be discriminated. The former 
are always within, and, expressed in a common 
term, may be called susceptibility. Occasions 
are from without, and are only convenient 
opportunities. They have no absolute power 
as entities, and can only exert such an in- 
fluence as susceptibility has conferred upon 
them. But, to man's personal sense, suscep- 
tibility has installed itself as that which has 
laws of its own; and he is their subject and 
victim. 

Suppose that ten persons are equally ex- 
posed to smallpox. Two respond to it, and 
eight do not. To the eight who did not "take 
it," it was not a contagion at all, but simply 
a nonentity. The two who presented a fertile 
and ready-made soil had unwittingly produced 
susceptibility. Through the subtle processes of 
the imaging faculty, man — for himself — is a 
creator. Disease, therefore, is his own con- 
trivance. He has erected certain limits, which, 
though not in the moral economy, he calls 
laws, and is obliged to do them homage. This 
is illustrated in many places where the prin- 
ciple is never suspected. 

A certain immunity from smallpox doubt- 
less comes from vaccination. In reality, the 



194 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

operation is a contrivance which tells upon 
the subconscious mind. There is an abiding 
inner sense of protection from the disorder. 
Whenever the attention of the conscious mind 
is called to the subject, a spontaneous auto- 
suggestion of immunity wells up from within. 
It amounts to a kind of steady, hidden faith, 
and is reinforced by surrounding belief and 
acceptance. The clay of the body is but the 
passive and expressive incident in the transac- 
tion. But its psychological elements are, of 
course, a terra incognita to the medical prac- 
titioner who performs the "operation." If 
water could be surreptitiously substituted, the 
inoculation would be much more safe and 
cleanly and equally effective. . . . 

To lessen general and even personal respon- 
siveness to poisons, stimulants, and contagions, 
is a gradual and seemingly very slow work, 
as we count time. It is entirely a question of 
degree or of susceptibility transformed by al- 
most imperceptible stages. But, until the time 
does arrive when the widely subjective law of 
their potency is positively repealed, common 
sense would indicate that they be let alone. 

The germs of disease have no power per se, 
but an inviting and fertile soil on every hand 
confers potency upon them. Quarantines are 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 195 

therefore necessary so long as the present 
state of collective consciousness regarding 
germ-causation continues. The foregoing 
hints may aid some inquirers in the way of 
an intelligent discrimination between real 
causes and frequent occasions, and show that 
strict metaphysical principles are thoroughly 
logical and in accord with common sense. . . . 

[The following is condensed from an essay on 
"Environment" written for The Higher Law, Octo- 
ber, 1901, in response to a frequently stated criticism 
of the New Thought, namely, that it ignores man's 
natural environment.] 

An elastic subject truly! It may compass 
but a human mood, or it may include all "out- 
doors." Perhaps the term does not stand for 
quite the same to any two individuals, so that 
some attempt at definition is necessary in order 
to find common ground. 

If we stretch environment to the utmost, 
it may take in the entire cosmos, outside of 
self. . . . The sum total that can be contained 
in the individual consciousness is made up of 
the ego and the non-ego. . . . The individual 
is the actor ; while, in general, all else is acted 
upon. Relatively, he is positive, while en- 
vironment, with an exception noted later, is 



196 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

negative. But yet there is reciprocity. In a 
sense what is objective reacts, or, literally, 
acts back. Action from the center is normally 
intelligent and subject to self-control; but con- 
ventionally, reaction from without is assumed 
to be beyond guidance. Just here is found the 
vital significance and heart of the new phi- 
losophy, as distinguished from the thought of 
the past. Can we in considerable degree shape 
reaction, or must we take it as it comes? 
Every man has an environment ; and now 
what will he do with it? Will he dominate 
it or be its subject? And, if the former, how 
can he bring it into adjustment? Although 
no two environments are quite alike, the proc- 
ess of control — if control there is to be — must 
be one and the same. 

"Everything is against me," says one : "all 
things work together for my good," says an- 
other. In themselves the things in each case 
may be quite alike, but in relative realization 
both . . . views may be correct. Can we, 
then, dictate to environment as to how it shall 
act back? If so, it logically follows that we 
are its potential creators. . . . We need con- 
tinually to bear in mind that the objective, 
the physical world without is elastic, respon- 
sive material. It is not made up of the hard 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 197 

angles of fate or the solid surface of events; 
but, viewed more deeply, is in a state of flux. 
It is the melted wax awaiting the seal, or 
the soft clay inviting the cunning hand of the 
potter. 

The ego is the vital center of a system of 
wires, stretching out in every direction; and 
over them vibrations are ceaselessly going and 
coming. Everything, be it person or circum- 
stance, star or flower, heat or cold, is trans- 
mitting its message. Can we in any degree 
transmute or modify its quality? 

Let us state a law which may seem some- 
what abstract, and then consider to what ex- 
tent it may be wrought into concrete living. 
Our incoming messages, in quality and tone, 
will be duplicates or echoes of those which we 
send out — love for love, hate for hate, joy for 
joy — a mirror-like reflection. If we dislike 
a person, the sight or even the thought of him 
distinctly repeats it back. . . . Environment 
for many generations having seemed like a 
fixed quantity, can be practically transmuted 
only by degrees. But the fact that it can only 
be changed through growth does not invalidate 
the divine law. We have built up a sensuous 
law to the contrary, and our emancipation 
must be gradual. It is best that it should be 



198 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

so. Every accomplishment comes through 
education and cannot be poured in, in the mass. 

What about our human environment? In 
a word, life touches us on every side. It is 
not mere lives, of individuals, but a solidarity. 
. . . The ideal of our consciousness of human 
environment seems to be that all men should 
see themselves in others — "you in me, and I 
in you." 

Take . . . our own subconscious realm. 
Here is a fertile and prolific field where we 
are both sowing and reaping every day. It 
lies just before us ; and we cannot turn away 
our gaze from it, even if we would. It only 
need be noted that we create its quality, and 
this is a matter of supreme importance. 

Our brief survey would be incomplete with- 
out a positive recognition of the transcendent 
and crowning Reality. It is not irreverent or 
pantheistic to hold that God is the spiritual 
totality of our environment. The greatest 
thought that can be contained in the human 
consciousness is its relation with the Infinite. 
What an expansion in this concept in the 
recent past ! The tribal, the national, the an- 
thropomorphic, and the far-away deities are 
outgrown ideals ; and God "in whom we live, 
and move, and have our being" is the present 



CRITICISMS OF NEW THOUGHT 199 

and future inspiration. But with this last ideal 
we must beware of any dilution of the divine 
character, which is transcendent Wisdom, 
Goodness, and Love. Divinity is positive. 
God must not be sentimentalized or cheapened 
in consciousness, but lifted higher. While He 
is in and back of all things, it would be pan- 
theism to say that everything — as we behold 
it — is God. Immanence and transcendence are 
complementary aspects. To rate Him as 
"principle," as that term is generally under- 
stood, is unworthy; and such a concept will 
never fill the void in the human constitution. 
God is God ; and "principle," "ether," "cosmos" 
will not define Him. 1 While, therefore, in a 
sense, He has the relation of environment, 
He is incomparable with any other of its 
classifications. He is active : they are passive. 
He is positive ; they are negative. We impress 
them, the other parts of our environment, but 
receive impress from Him. We project our 
ideals upon them, but are to be consciously 
moulded by our ideal of Him. However un- 

1 Mr. Wood here wisely avoids the two extremes 
approached by later New Thought devotees, some 
of whom say unqualifiedly — perhaps thoughtlessly — 
"I am God"; while others, borrowing from "Chris- 
tian Science," reduce the idea of God to that of an 
impersonal "principle." — Ed. 



200 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

knowable He may be in the abstract, our 
highest ideals of Him represent Him to us, 
and, with ever-expanding measure, must be 
a finality. These are always above our pres- 
ent level of realization, and we are to be plastic 
to them. Our relation with the divine is 
therefore unlike that which is existent with 
all other parts of our environment. In more 
general terms, we should be negative, or re- 
ceptive, toward everything which is con- 
sciously above us, and positive toward all else. 
The opposite poles of man's being thus work 
together in the accomplishment of his spiritual 
evolution. All environment is auxiliary, if 
relation be rightly adjusted. 

[Granted that our environment is, to us, largely 
what we believe it to be; and that suggestion can 
foster faith in vaccination, in medicines of various 
sorts, the question would still hold over, What of 
those forces, in the environment we call "nature," 
which operate according to precise laws, ascertain- 
able by physics and chemistry, regardless of all 
human suggestions whatsoever? Does suggestion 
really change anything in nature, or merely offset 
certain otherwise inevitable effects for the moment? 
—Ed.] 



XVIII 
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 

BY ANNETTA G. DRESSER 

[The author of the following selections was under 
Mr. Quimby's care as a patient, in Portland, in 
1863, and has recounted her experience in The 
Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, 1895. The first selec- 
tion is from an article contributed to The Higher 
Law, January, 1900.] 

Years ago, when Mr. Quimby said in his 
writings and to his patients, "The time will 
come when goodness will be taught as a 
science," the statement seemed a strange one. 
In the light of the present understanding of 
the effect of thought one has a glimmering of 
what this science will be — the science of hope, 
of charity, faith, all that constitutes goodness 
in the truest sense. 1 

To understand this science, it is necessary 
to know what the inner process is when hope, 
love, charity, is practically lived and used as 
a remedy for ills, spiritual and physical. 

1 Quimby's term was, "The Science of Life and 
Happiness." — Ed. 

201 



202 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

Spoken of as a science, one is apt to think of 
it at first as cold and impersonal: whereas, 
when rightly understood, it is found to bring 
warmth and life into all sciences, whether it 
be astronomy or chemistry. Like these, it is 
as exact and accurate in its application as 
mathematics ; and it was this perception which 
made Quimby say that "even a little child 
could be taught to know the law." 

We are so exquisitely constructed that every 
movement in the mind, a thought in one di- 
rection or another, sets up vibrations within 
us as quickly and as surely as an seolian harp 
responds to a breath of wind. Let us consider 
this for a moment. If it is true that a direc- 
tion of mind has this effect, has not the time 
come to study into these things more con- 
scientiously and deeply, in order to understand 
the entire process as an exact science? All 
progressive thinkers know something of the 
effect of thought upon the body. They under- 
stand its effect to a certain point in daily life, 
and many are healed through the practice of 
right thinking. This, however, is a surface 
consideration in comparison to what I desire 
to make plain. Since any hopeful thought 
produces certain and partial effects, many are 
satisfied to stop there. But in a great emer- 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 203 

gency they are left to the mercies of the 
world's beliefs and practices. They toss about 
from hope to despair, from faith to doubt, 
because they have not gone deeply enough into 
the philosophy to know why and how faith 
or hope can effect certain results. 

It is the same law of action and reaction 
that proves itself to us in other ways. We 
need, however, to push the question far enough 
to give "a reason for the faith that is in us." 
Without this only surface work can be done. 
With it, one knows the way, step by step, 
until gradually the time will come when 
"greater works" can be done because we "know 
the Father." 

The chemist, in order to produce a certain 
quality, puts together by precise weight or 
measurement certain materials. There is no 
uncertainty about it : he knows what to expect, 
what will result from the combination. Some 
of these chemical changes are very mild in 
their action — a little effervescence or other 
chemical change takes place by the union of 
two or more substances. This illustrates the 
effect upon the delicate ethereal substance in 
the body that lies next to thought, 1 when a 

1 That is, the substance called "spiritual matter," 
by Quimby. — Ed. 



204 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

change of current is caused by a new direction 
of mind. All that is needed to make a slight 
chemical change in the body is a hopeful turn 
of mind. This is the first step in the right di- 
rection, the two and two that make four, the 
simple problem in the science of life. 

Is the process understood even in this early 
stage? If not, the teacher and healer should 
seek to understand it. If the starting point is 
thoroughly understood, one can then go on 
figuring out one's problems with a faith and 
a trust in the deeper processes, just as the 
chemist uses more powerful ingredients to pro- 
duce the dangerous explosives. The chemist 
does not venture to experiment with danger- 
ous compounds until he has carefully studied 
along the way, for he knows what mighty 
forces he is handling. The wonderful proc- 
esses that go on within us can be understood 
from these earlier experiences on to deeper 
ones, and can be controlled as conscientiously 
and carefully as the chemist handles his 
materials. 

This introductory process might better be 
compared to the experiences of the beginner 
in violin playing. He knows that his instru- 
ment vibrates just according to the handling 
of the bow and the touch upon the strings. 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 205 

He can make either harmonious or discordant 
sounds. But, if he is wise, he does not attempt 
much beyond his knowledge. He works on 
patiently and carefully, knowing that he will 
be able to make the delicate shading and ex- 
quisite music only through persistent effort 
with abundant faith in the science of music. 

The time is coming when our spiritual per- 
ceptions will become so quickened that a prac- 
titioner in spiritual healing will know as surely 
what changes are taking place deep within the 
human body as the surgeon when he lays bare 
the delicate tissues and binds up the cords and 
nerves. 

This does not mean that we are not to take 
things on trust in our daily lives, and have a 
faith beyond our practice. If this were so, 
one would lose very much in the unfolding 
of the soul. It means those who are ignorant 
of the marvelous changes which take place 
under mental influences, who do not under- 
stand the wonderful law of action and reac- 
tion in the inner life, should not have the 
responsibility they now have, that there should 
be training schools for healers and teachers, 
where they may be fitted to work according 
to their understanding. Never will spiritual 
healing and the wonderful inner workings of 



206 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the human mind be understood until each stu- 
dent is willing and ready to begin at the A, 
B, C's, and work on carefully and wisely to 
greater and greater results in their own lives 
and in the healing of other's diseases. 

One should become like a little child, start- 
ing with the simplest effect produced by an 
uplifting thought, and make sure that one 
understands the reasons why certain effects 
are produced. Then the healer assumes noth- 
ing. He frankly admits his limitations; and, 
so far as he goes, he stands on as substantial 
a basis as the chemist. 

What is the process effected by a change of 
thought from a depressed to a hopeful atti- 
tude? To answer this question satisfactorily, 
one must start from the first principles of life, 
and study involution and evolution. But to 
suggest the first simple effects of an uplifting 
thought, we may picture the following situa- 
tion. A person is shut into a small dark room, 
with no light except what comes from the 
crack of a door ajar, opening into a large light 
court. The person's back is turned to the 
single ray of light. Suddenly he turns about, 
discovers the source of the light, and moves 
toward it. He may even open the door and 
look out. Possibly he crosses the threshold, 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 207 

out into the sunlight, and begins to reflect and 
compare, and so becomes wise enough not 
again to enter the dark room. So with the 
soul imprisoned in the body. The doors are 
opened a crack or closed by the action of mind, 
the direction of thought. In the hopeful at- 
titude a process is at once set up like that pro- 
duced by the movement toward the open door. 

The delicate and radiant matter that is the 
nearest to thought expands, like a veil, becom- 
ing thinner. The soul sees through the open- 
ing. As this widens, the ever-resident Life 
fills the space. Every particle responds to this 
action. The gray matter of the brain sets up 
different vibrations. The nerves respond to 
this new life, and a chemical change begins. 

Here is something to start with and depend 
upon, something a beginner in the study of the 
science can understand. From this beginning 
one has a glimpse of the wonderful process of 
the universe, so that a new light dawns upon 
the mind in regard to the oneness of life. 
This, indeed, is the science of sciences. This 
is the essence of all understanding, an all- 
embracing, warm, loving truth. It- is the first 
realization of our oneness with a mighty force, 
an inexhaustible supply of life, of health, faith, 
hope, and charity. 



208 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

[The writer speaks from the point of view of many 
years of experience with the sick, according to 
Quimby's method, that is, the method of intuitive 
diagnosis and the endeavor to understand the entire 
condition of the patient, in contrast with mental 
healers who, lacking this intuition, have depended 
on affirmations. Many devotees of the New Thought 
have, indeed, sought for a spiritual science of life. 
But the tendency has been to take the clue from 
abstractions, and ideals that may be realized in the 
exceedingly distant future, in contrast with the clue 
that may be found in actual knowledge of the real 
situation, the present condition of the patient. The 
above is also in contrast with a position held by 
some of the New Thought writers who have never 
had the qualifying experience of the actual healing 
of the sick. That is, in its frank admission that 
matter possesses chemical qualities. Nothing is 
likely to be gained by regarding matter as devoid 
of qualities save such as the mind attributes to it, 
in the case of food, drugs, and poisons. The real 
consideration is, granted the God-given qualities of 
matter, chemical and physical, what is the best use 
to which they may be put by man in his sure 
knowledge of himself, his powers of thought, his 
spiritual openness to divine power? It would be 
dogmatic to insist that any one point of view 
contains the whole truth, but it is at least instruc- 
tive to contrast the above ideal of a science with 
the belief that finite thought, depending on sugges- 
tion, can practically ignore the laws and forces of 
the natural world. The next selection from the 
above writer continues the same point of view into 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 209 

another field. It is condensed from The Higher 
Law, March, 1900.] 

Every person's judgment of another is 
warped and colored by his own condition or 
state of development. It is said that every 
great soul is misunderstood. This must be 
true, since the soul which has developed 
beyond the masses perceives the truth from 
another standpoint. His acts cannot be ap- 
preciated by those who have not reached the 
same level. It is like viewing a landscape from 
a mountain top. Those who have never stood 
on the same height criticize and misjudge 
without knowledge. 

Yet how hard it is for the one who is mis- 
understood, before he has learned to have 
charity through knowledge of the laws gov- 
erning the growth of the soul ! Is it possible 
to have charity for the undeveloped until one 
understands involution and evolution in the 
spiritual sense? Is it wise to expect another 
to see things from our own standpoint, until 
that one has unfolded into the same light? 
Evidently there is no knowledge sufficient to 
cover all cases of misjudgment, except the 
scientific philosophy which gives the reasons 
why one soul views everything from his own 



210 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

point of view, which is a little different from 
that of any one else. 

Oh, the heartaches to be relieved, the tears 
to be wiped away, the misunderstandings to 
be explained away ! No one is wholly free 
from these hard experiences. We all mis- 
judge and at times we are all misunderstood. 
Even when one has learned the law and ex- 
ercises love and charity, one must enter deeply 
into one's own kingdom within, and gather 
new strength and more love. One must see 
both sides of a question before complete relief 
comes. If it is a case where the misunder- 
standing arises because one has reached a 
higher state of development than the one who 
has, through ignorance, uttered the unkind 
word, one must realize that no one can see a 
truth until one has come to judgment. 

I question if any one can fully appreciate 
the hindrances a soul meets in its unfolding 
until one has studied the subjective life, until 
one realizes through experience the mental 
and physical forces through which the soul 
struggles for freedom. Shut into its prison, 
what can be expected of a soul, when that 
prison is a body composed of such materials 
as those which constitute the average man? 
It is no wonder that very few can bear op- 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 211 

position or dictation without excitement or 
anger. The slightest stirring of such atoms 
is sufficient to cause disturbance. The soul 
cannot see through the density surrounding it. 
When a man feels the pressure of these excited 
particles, he cannot control his sensations. If 
he is pushed to the wall, he retaliates accord- 
ing to his state of density and activity. 

How often would we say of the murderer, 
"Forgive him; he knows not what he does," 
if we knew the make-up of his body and the 
darkness of the prison within! Such a man 
does not know what he is or what he is doing. 
If we knew the true situation in every differ- 
ence of opinion, we would have consideration 
and charity. Never would we condemn. 

Remember, then, that each man does the 
best he can under the immediate, existing cir- 
cumstance. Just when he yields to temptation, 
the forces are too strong for him. This is be- 
cause he is ignorant of those forces. Given 
another minute, perhaps, just time enough to 
think, and he would have gained a victory. 

On the other side, if one feels that one has 
attained a degree of development beyond 
others who have misjudged or who seek to 
control, if it is true spiritual development, one 
has that true humility which refuses to admit 



212 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

any superiority over the other. One can feel 
a sorrow and a desire to help, but there is a 
breadth of comprehension which forbids con- 
troversy. One knows the other soul is just 
as pure, just as whole ; but it has not yet come 
to consciousness in this direction. 

If the father and mother cannot sympathize 
with the advanced ideas the daughter has im- 
bibed, they may suffer as much in their fears 
for the safety of the loved one, even more, 
perhaps, than the daughter in her loneliness, 
in her longing to have her parents receive the 
new light. But the daughter has this advan- 
tage : she knows she is progressing out of the 
old bondage into a broader and freer life. 
With this knowledge comes, or ought to come, 
such an understanding of the situation that 
she cannot be misunderstood without feeling 
hurt, with a sweetness and quietness that will 
convince her parents of the truth she has 
gained. How little we know of righteous 
judgment, after all! 

We wonder why a friend has withdrawn 
from active work in a society or club. We 
judge him from what we see and hear. We 
may not know that he is passing through a 
phase of life which requires all of his concen- 
trated efforts, in order to overcome certain 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 213 

conditions, that for a time he must live away 
from activities and friends. He knows that 
he is misunderstood ; but he must bear it, even 
if he loses the sympathy and help that a friend 
might give if the situation were understood. 
But, if the friends only knew what cannot 
be told, how different would be their attitude 
toward him, how different their thoughts and 
words ! 

We must be willing — yes, even happy — if 
we are misunderstood. Sometimes it is be- 
cause of our higher and deeper insights into 
life. Sometimes our motives cannot be known. 

Our friend has only a partial view of the 
situation. He puts an entirely wrong inter- 
pretation on the case. Even here we can be 
calm and trusting; for he is not to blame, he 
did not know. He did as well as he could at 
the time. 

In every case, be the mistaken judgment on 
one side or the other, one cannot err on the 
side of charity. Wait! Suspend your opin- 
ion! Remember that the walls are thick and 
dense which surround the soul: it cannot see 
through except by a gradual unfolding into 
the light. We are all moving on together ; and 
the only logical view of the situation is to live 
in the outcome of every experience with a 



214 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

faith and trust in the Infinite Love, which can 
be relied on as surely as the law of gravitation. 
It is because we fail to perceive that the law 
of love is perfect that we have our disturb- 
ances and misunderstandings. To trust it im- 
plicitly, to wait, have no condemnation, means 
freedom for the soul and emancipation from 
misjudgments. 

[Comparing the cardinal statements of the fore- 
going with the propositions laid down by Mr. Wood 
in the preceding chapter, we find the writer acknowl- 
edging the facts of physics and chemistry, and look- 
ing beyond these to the ideal of a higher science, 
one that shall be based on facts, in contrast with 
mere affirmations. These contentions suggest the 
importance of more thorough psychological study, 
if mental healing shall be put upon a scientifically 
secure basis. On the other hand, some devotees 
of the New Thought would doubtless say that Mrs. 
Dresser comes very near determinism in her teach- 
ing that people do as well as they can under the 
circumstances; and the New Thought is unques- 
tionably belief in freedom. Yet if we add the com- 
plementary truth that man is morally and spiritually 
free, despite the conditions of his mental life and 
of his moral environment, we find all the more 
reason for the far-reaching charity advocated above. 
In any case there is reason to avoid all condemnation. 
This belief in the essential goodness of man, this 
charitable quest for the good in all men, is surely 
the very "Spirit of the New Thought."] 



XIX 

THE METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 

[From a statement issued by the Metaphysical 
Club, Boston, in The Higher Law, November, 1901.] 

The Metaphysical Movement, popularly 
known as the New Thought, is the result of 
an earnest search for truth, wherever it may 
be found, in a spirit that is non-sectarian, in- 
clusive, and constructive. Fearlessly ques- 
tioning the authority imputed to any dogma, 
creed, or person, it is a sincere attempt to dis- 
cover the best in the wisdom of the ages, and 
to thus formulate a philosophy of life that 
shall be fundamental and at the same time 
practical. This philosophy must regard all 
the facts of life as we find them in the uni- 
verse. At the same time it must have some 
great reality for its basis ; and it must be ap- 
plicable to the various phases and experiences 
of the busy, active life of man in this present 
world. 

The most important and distinguishing 
215 



216 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

teaching of the New Thought philosophy is 
that ideals are realities, and that all primary 
causes are internal forces. As God is in His 
world, and not external to it, the ever-creative 
Mind, of which the material universe is the 
visible word, so the great truth runs through 
everything that mind is primary and causative, 
while matter is secondary and resultant. 
Every material form is the outward expression 
of some inward quality, which is spiritual. 
In the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal 
worlds there is something within each species 
that perpetuates it after its kind. In the hu- 
man species, the highest form of creation, 
there is not only the animal life, which can 
reproduce itself after its kind: there is be- 
stowed upon man a mind and a soul, with 
powers of thought, of reasoning, and of as- 
piration, which may transcend and transform 
and glorify the animal nature. To him is 
given the privilege to share in that divine proc- 
ess which is ever working to bring into mani- 
festation more and more of the beautiful, the 
good, and the true. Through right thoughts 
and right ideals, man may so harmonize his 
life with the divine plan that there shall ever 
come to him a fuller measure of those external 
conditions which we may believe belong to a 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 217 

true human life in this present world, among 
which are health, happiness, peace, prosperity, 
and power for righteousness. 

The New Thought teaching, then, is that the 
children of men are living souls now, children 
of God. The first lesson we need to learn is 
this. The first step we need to take toward 
a fuller and freer life is to get this conscious- 
ness of ourselves as spiritual beings, citizens 
of a divine universe. It was said of old that, 
"as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
Once get the spiritual consciousness into our 
minds and hearts and square our daily think- 
ing to it, and then, as effect follows cause by 
an unalterable law, so will our physical and 
social and external lives reveal and manifest 
the conditions that belong to the human life 
of God. With the renewal of the ideas that 
are the continual substance of our thoughts 
there begins a transformation that affects the 
whole being. As pictures of diseases and fail- 
ure and death are banished, life and confidence 
and health take their places. All the bodily 
processes respond to a new feeling in the 
soul ; all the energies are quickened by a new 
conception of the source of life and power; 
and we have a scientific demonstration of the 
truth which was tersely stated in that simple 



218 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

and plain saying of Jesus : "Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and 
all these things shall be added unto you." 

As a method of healing bodily disease, as 
a cure for social ills, as a philosophy of life, 
the New Thought stands squarely on the be- 
lief that the remedy for all defect and dis- 
order is metaphysical, beyond the physical, in 
the realm of causes, which are mental and 
spiritual. It boldly and confidently makes the 
claim that, since we are spiritual beings, the 
source of our life is in God; and it comes 
forth from Him pure and sound and healthful. 
To be as explicit as possible, the New Thought 
does not deny the existence of the body. On 
the contrary, it would honor and glorify the 
body as the instrument of an immortal soul. 
To the soul belong life and health, and by this 
realization and belief the body may be restored 
from sickness or kept from disease. Neither 
does the New Thought deny sickness and 
pain. 1 It recognizes that they are facts of 
life, but it holds that they are not positive 
realities. They are rather negative conditions, 
the lack of ease, of harmony, of health. They 
are disturbances brought into the naturally 

1 Thus it is distinguished from Christian Science. 

-Ed. 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 219 

harmonious life which rightfully belongs to 
the human race. 

Out of our own experience we know that 
anger, fear, worry, hate, revenge, avarice, 
grief — in fact, all negative and low emotions 
— produce weakness and disturbance, not only 
in the mind, but in the body as well. It has 
been proved that they actually generate poi- 
sons in the body, they depress the circulation ; 
they change the quality of the blood, making 
it less vital ; they affect the great nerve-centers, 
and thus partially paralyze the very seat of 
the bodily activities. On the other hand, faith, 
hope, love, joy, and peace, all emotions that 
are positive and uplifting, so act on the body 
as to restore and maintain harmony and actu- 
ally to stimulate the circulation and nutrition. 
The heart beats strong and true when love 
and trust fill the mind. The breathing is deep 
when confidence and faith are present. The 
great solar plexus is full of life-giving cur- 
rents when we are inspired by an abiding 
knowledge that "in Him we live, and move, 
and have our being." 

As with bodily diseases, so with social ills : 
there can be no true reform in the body politic 
until each individual establishes right relations 
with his fellows by a correct mental attitude. 



220 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

Armaments and legislative enactments are in 
vain as long as hatred and injustice and greed 
are in the heart. The remedy is not new; 
but it has been taken up with a new emphasis 
by the advocates of metaphysical methods of 
reform. We were told ages ago that our 
highest duty was to do justice and love mercy. 
We know the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you do ye even 
so to them.' , But somehow there has come 
to us a new conception of the oneness of all 
mankind. We understand, as never before, 
that we are members one of another. We 
know that we are all bound up together in a 
unity of life and a community of interests that 
cannot be disregarded and outraged. We have 
discovered that what is done to one is done to 
all, and that the suffering of the one class is 
borne by the other. A new thought has come 
to us also about the drawing power of our 
true life. Silently, but surely, its influence 
goes out to many, and so in some measure to 
all. We have a new realization, too, of the 
responsiveness of every soul, no matter how 
sinful it may seem. The sympathetic touch 
of a loving heart, the quickening power of a 
brother's trust, are forces as sure as gravita- 
tion. This new knowledge and new thought 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 221 

give us courage and faith, and point the way 
to the true methods of social reform. 

As a philosophy of life, the New Thought 
takes for its fundamental reality the idea of 
God as an immanent, indwelling spirit; All- 
wisdom, All-goodness, ever present in the uni- 
verse as a warm and tender Father, and not 
as a cold abstraction. If this statement be 
true, then evil can have no place in the world 
as a permanent reality and power. It is not 
denied that it exists now, but only as an ac- 
companiment of incompleteness. It must be 
a negative quantity, the absence of good, as 
darkness is the absence of light. But in 
man's erroneous conception it is distorted and 
clothed with power and reality. In the phi- 
losophy of the New Thought, pain, suffering, 
and so-called misfortune are educative, reveal- 
ing to us our inharmonious relation to the 
divine law. Sin and moral evil are largely an 
ignorant selfishness, — ignorant of an Al- 
mighty Love under whose divine providence 
all things work together for good to those 
who obey its law. 

The Metaphysical Movement exists, then, 
as the exponent of an optimism so reasonable 
and yet so forceful that all men will be drawn 
to it. It would recognize the inherent goodness 



222 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

everywhere. It would not sweep away the 
grandeur and beauty of the material universe 
by calling it an illusion and an evil. It be- 
lieves that the laws and processes of the uni- 
verse are beneficent, and that the power that 
is working through it and in it is Wisdom and 
Love. If this be true, there is absolutely no 
place for fear and worry. Through true 
thinking, the New Thought disciple applies 
this philosophy to every experience of life. 
The result is a serenity and a poise that are 
conducive to health, happiness, and power. 

The Metaphysical Movement believes in a 
divine humanity, a human brotherhood with 
a divine Fatherhood. The Infinite Unity must 
have diversity to satisfy His necessity for 
perpetual expression. In each individual we 
must recognize a divine possibility and a di- 
vine instrumentality. The New Thought 
stands for man's creative cooperation with 
the divine will, for his bonds of fellowship 
and sympathy with his fellow-men, and for 
the necessity of service as the means of ful- 
filling the complete life. 

The Metaphysical Movement has not come 
to destroy, but to fulfil. While it is pro- 
foundly religious, it is non-sectarian. It 
teaches the universality of religion ; that God's 



METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT 223 

spirit is more or less active in the minds of 
all people, and that each individual receives 
according to his needs and desires. It teaches 
that there is no problem in life that cannot be 
solved by a knowledge of the law of God as 
written in the hearts of men, and by obedience 
thereto. It believes in present and progres- 
sive revelation of truth, but reverently ac- 
knowledges our debt to the prophets of God 
in all ages. Especially in the Christian scrip- 
tures are found clear and comprehensive state- 
ments of the truth that has power to liberate, 
to bless, and to heal. This new movement is 
aglow with an enthusiastic purpose to make 
this truth practical here and today, to bring 
the life of God into the everyday lives of men 
as a power ever making for righteousness, 
wholeness, happiness, and health. It would 
proclaim to man his freedom from the neces- 
sity of belief in disease, poverty, and all evil 
as a part of God's plan. 

It is true, as often said, that the New 
Thought is not new in the elements of truth 
on which it is based. But in its combination 
of science, philosophy, and religion, and in its 
application to the healing of physical, mental, 
and moral diseases through the development 
of the spiritual consciousness, it is unique. 



224 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

Without a formal creed, believing in organi- 
zation only as it may promote the general 
good, the New Thought offers the right hand 
of fellowship to members of every religious 
denomination. Free to seek instruction and 
inspiration in the scriptures of all ages and 
peoples, it has also a large and increasing lit- 
erature of its own, much of which is so up- 
lifting and yet so practical as to be distinctly 
helpful. In fact, this phrase aptly character- 
izes the whole movement, uplifting and yet 
practical. It stands for the practice of the 
presence of God reduced to a scientific method 
of living a selfless * life through union in 
thought with a power that is love in action. 
In this lies its power to draw out the best 
that is in humanity; to bring sweetness and 
light and peace into the lives of hundreds of 
thousands of people ; to rob death of its sting 
and pain of its poignancy; to take the terror 
from disease by proving its powerlessness ; to 
crown the life with the joy and health and 
abundance which are the rightful inheritance 
of every child of God. 

1 That is, unselfish ; through true, not negative, 
sel f-realization. — Ed. 



XX 

THE LAW OF THE GOOD 

BY EGBERT MORSE CHESLEY 

[An address at the convention of the International 
Metaphysical League, Boston, 1899.] 

Does not the New Thought as well as the 
Old recognize the existence of evil in the 
world? Yes. Does not the New as well as 
the Old Thought recognize the serious conse- 
quences to soul and body of the deliberate 
choice of evil? Yes. Do not both the Old 
and the New Thought believe and teach that 
evil is to be overcome gradually by the power, 
the supremacy of the good? Yes. Wherein 
then is the difference? Wherein is the New 
Metaphysical Movement any advance on the 
older ethical and religious systems which have 
so long dominated the opinions of the world ? 
Let us consider this question and endeavor to 
clear away certain doubts and misconceptions. 
Of course I can here speak only of a single 
phase of the subject. I must confine my re- 
marks to this one point — the difference be- 
225 



226 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

tween the Old and the New Thought as to the 
establishment of good and the abolition of evil 
— the overcoming of evil conditions in mind, 
body and environment. There is then a very 
great difference between the Old Thought and 
the New. I am thoroughly well assured that 
the New Thought teaching will be found to be 
immeasurably superior to the older ethical and 
religious teaching along these particular lines. 
Let us see. 

1. The New Philosophy of Health places an 
enormous emphasis upon the good. The good 
is the supreme reality and the eternal Law of 
the Good is the very heart of the universe and 
of us. The evil is but temporary and inci- 
dental. It belongs to the phenomenal, not 
the noumenal, order. There is no being, life 
or intelligence back of it. It arises from our 
ignorance, our imperfection, our non-realiza- 
tion of the truth. It is a vanishing element in 
the cosmos and is powerless in the presence 
of the realized good. It disappears as the 
darkness in the presence of the light. It is, 
in other words, a relative, and not an absolute, 
reality. It is the privation or negation of that 
which eternally is. 

2. The New Philosophy of Health teaches, 
in season and out of season, not to dwell upon 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 227 

the evil in thought, for this confirms its real- 
ity and strengthens its power. It teaches us 
to ignore, as much as possible, the evil, to look 
away from the evil, and to fill our minds with 
the thoughts of the good. It teaches us to rec- 
ognize the good everywhere, to affirm the eter- 
nal reality of the good, to believe in the good, 
to ally ourselves with the absolute Law of the 
Good. The New Philosophy of Health utters 
its decree that the good is always overcoming 
the evil that is in the universe; that it is in- 
finitely stronger than the evil; and that it is 
the true and eternal nature of man, however 
far he may have wandered away in conscious- 
ness from his Source. Instead of the older 
view of the degradation, the moral inability, 
the natural sinfulness of man, the New 
Thought emphasizes the view of Leibnitz and 
Emerson that man is godlike and that all spir- 
itual being is potentially within him. Its gos- 
pel is the gospel of hope. It brings tidings of 
great joy. It recognizes that the spirit of man 
is sinless, diseaseless and deathless, sharing 
the very nature of God and destined to immor- 
tal glory. It believes with Maurice and Er- 
skine that every man is a child of God now, 
although he may not know it ; that every man 
lives and moves and has his being in God now, 



228 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

although he may repudiate and deny the fact ; 
that the Divine Love, infinite in tenderness, 
lies at the heart of every man, awaiting rec- 
ognition and responsive trust and affection. 

But the New Thought does not hold these 
sublime facts of man's spiritual being as beau- 
tiful and cherished theories and ideals to be 
speculated upon and talked about. It believes 
in their realization here and now. It holds 
them as great practical truths to be demon- 
strated in the daily life in time. It believes 
in the regeneration and transformation of the 
old order of things, now hastening to its de- 
cay. We have had enough of vain and empty 
theory. We have had a surfeit of high-sound- 
ing phrases about the dignity and the divinity 
of human nature from our pulpits and in our 
religious periodicals. Now let us have life — 
the practical exemplification of our theories. 
Now, at length, let us have the courage of our 
convictions — the glory of actual achievement. 
The New Thought not only believes, but it 
knows, and has practically demonstrated, that 
man has a hitherto undreamed of power over 
his own psychical and bodily states, and even 
over the forces and laws of external nature. 
It believes and knows that we are on the verge 
of a new and wonderful era, and that we are 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 229 

just beginning to enter into the possession and 
enjoyment of that marvelous inheritance 
which has always been ours from the foun- 
dation of the world. 

3. The New Philosophy of Health has dis- 
covered the wonderful power of the great Af- 
firmations of Being, both in the culture of the 
ethical and spiritual life, and in the overcom- 
ing of diseased conditions of soul and body. 
It has been proven in thousands of instances 
that their faithful and persistent use weakens 
the power of evil in the human heart, purifies 
the soul of its baser tendencies, and brings 
man into the realization of his royal spiritual 
nature, his divine sonship. Speaking from the 
plane of that spiritual nature, that great and 
transcendent Self which is common to us all, 
that Eternal Christ who is our life, we have 
the perfect right to affirm with all the energy 
and conviction of our souls : — 

Absolute Good is the one supreme reality 
— omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. 

All evil is relative, a shadow of mortal con- 
sciousness — from the highest divine stand- 
point, unreality. 

All things are working together for my good 
in the infinite Love of God. I rest in perfect 
peace. 



230 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

God is my all-sufficiency in all things. I 
have no doubt I have no fear. 

I am one with the eternal Law of the Good 
and all is well. 

In the eternal reality of my being all good 
things are mine now. 

I am that great and divine Self — poised al- 
ways in the Truth of Being, calm, serene and 
strong. 

In me, the Self, are all the treasures of wis- 
dom, life and power. 

The power of my emancipated Will is om- 
nipotent to overcome all errors, falsities and 
illusions. 

I am rejoicing here and now in the freedom 
and the joy of God. 

The persistent daily employment of such 
grand health-giving words, which are pro- 
foundly true of man's spiritual nature, is not 
only perfectly legitimate, but is the means by 
which the living, developing soul unifies itself 
with its true and universal being. In this way 
the soul learns to know that it is alive with 
the life of the Spirit, strong with the strength 
of the Spirit, and wise with the wisdom that 
is infinite. The faithful, earnest use of these 
ideal affirmations will bring health, peace, joy 
and freedom. 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 231 

Of course, all this presupposes a deep and 
earnest desire for that eternal good which is 
life and health and peace, as well as a will- 
ingness to renounce all known error and evil. 
Of course, the truth must be lived out in our 
practical relations with the world. But the 
continued use of these affirmations, these ideal 
suggestions, with right understanding and 
right conviction, will enable the soul to do this 
very thing, will give it greater and greater 
strength to overcome its native weaknesses, 
greater and greater wisdom to manifest the 
fair fruits of righteousness, peace and love. 

The true prayer without ceasing is the per- 
petual realization and affirmation of the good. 
When seeming evil assails us, as it surely will, 
let us meet it instantly with the understanding 
of its unreality in the presence of the good, 
with the assertion that it has no place at all 
in the Truth of Being or in us. We shall at 
length become so poised and stabled in the 
good that all our thoughts and words will be 
based upon this principle and all we do will 
be done in the spirit of love which is the Spirit 
of God. To all those passing out of the old 
thought-life, with its baneful recognition of 
evil, into the new, times of testing will come. 
The power of old habits of thought is very 



232 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

great. They become a kind of second nature 
— ignorance crystallized in the subconscious 
mind. But in all our times of trial let us hold 
fast to the eternal verities and be undismayed. 
Error-thoughts may have taken root in the 
mind through many incarnations. Very well, 
then the conquest of them by this new and 
royal method is the greater glory. Let our 
declarations of the truth be the more positive 
and the more constant. Let our faith in the 
supreme reality of the good be the more un- 
wavering. Let us stand firm in our footsteps 
and claim our divine inheritance. Let us real- 
ize that our redemption is always at hand, be- 
cause we are united with the wonderful Law 
of the Good. Herein is the way of health, 
happiness and prosperity. Herein is the as- 
surance of freedom and salvation from the 
ills of time. In this way we break the spell 
of mortal ignorance and error and begin to 
live the true and higher life. 

The daily use of the great Affirmations of 
Being is the new method of prayer and thanks- 
giving, now rapidly gaining recognition in our 
world. I believe that it will ultimately largely 
supersede the older forms of seeking and wor- 
shiping the one Infinite Spirit. Its superiority 
consists in this: With earnest desire and as- 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 233 

piration for the good, it combines the greatest 
faith. The very form of affirmation in which 
we clothe our petition implies our perfect faith 
that all good things are already ours — that is, 
in the deeper realities of our being. This new 
form of prayer, therefore, fulfils the require- 
ment of that sublime and mystical saying of 
Jesus : Whatsoever ye ask and pray for, be- 
lieve that ye have received it, and ye shall have 
it. This word of the Master is one of the 
grandest statements of reality ever made since 
the dawn of human intelligence. The world 
is just beginning to understand it. The New 
Thought Movement endeavors courageously 
to put it into practice. The perennial con- 
sciousness of the absolute reality and univer- 
sality of the good, which is one of the cardi- 
nal principles of the New Metaphysical 
Movement, promises to revolutionize our 
whole religious thinking. This consciousness 
is rapidly gaining ground in our Christian 
churches. The absolute Law of the Good, the 
eternal supremacy of the good, are being more 
and more revealed to all men everywhere in 
these closing days of our century. I believe 
that the general acceptance and practical ap- 
plication of this philosophy of the good will 
do more to banish war and injustice, sin, sor- 



234 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

row and sickness, from the world than all 
other agencies combined. 

We can really affirm ourselves to be that 
which we most desire to be, and can actually 
achieve magnificent results. A man is essen- 
tially and fundamentally a consciousness. He 
may train and mold that consciousness in ac- 
cordance with his highest ideals. How? 
Through the undreamed of power of the af- 
firmations of truth, thousands of times re- 
peated in the light of his highest spiritual 
intelligence. By the faithful use of these af- 
firmations the lower mind may be thoroughly 
transformed and renewed. There is a well- 
known psychical law underlying all this. The 
spirit of man is creative. It may impress its 
wisdom, its power, its sense of freedom, upon 
the conscious and the subconscious mind, and 
may fashion them into the image of the truth. 
It may purify the outer vehicles in which the 
Immortal Ego functions and establish health 
and harmony in place of disease and discord. 

The intelligent and persistent use of the 
great affirmations of Being can change those 
universal race-beliefs which have so long held 
us in bondage. It can destroy those wide- 
spread errors of thought into which we are all 
born, and which have become for us such sure 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 235 

and abiding realities. Many of the so-called 
laws of our physical nature are really not such 
at all. On the contrary, they are laws made 
by man himself, his legacy from the long past 
— the infantile stages of his evolution. They 
can be transcended by him who knows the 
Law, by him who has the spiritual wisdom to 
contradict and annul them. As has been inti- 
mated, the spoken word is very powerful. 
But of course the spoken word alone is not 
sufficient. The spirit of our affirmations must 
get itself incorporated into our daily thinking 
and acting, working in us regeneration — 
birth from the old into the new kingdom of 
the truth. 

These ideal affirmations, these assertions 
born of a higher knowledge, this abiding con- 
sciousness of the power and reality of the 
truth, this understanding and this practice of 
the presence of the good, — these, I repeat, are 
the most effective means by which we may 
re-create our whole being. No outside power 
will do this work for us. The work is in our 
own hands. We must be thoroughly con- 
vinced that we are co-creators with God. We 
must think and speak from the standpoint of 
the True Self. We must recognize under all 
circumstances our inborn divinity. 



236 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

As we withdraw our consciousness, our rec- 
ognition, from the old beliefs of error which 
have so long enslaved us, what happens? 
They gradually die out from lack of nourish- 
ment. They are not rooted and grounded in 
the truth, and so they are negative to the high- 
er thoughts of the good. We are not to fight 
the old beliefs ; we are not to fear them and 
make realities of them ; but we are to concen- 
trate our attention upon the high truths of 
spiritual reality. What are the high truths of 
spiritual reality? They are health, strength, 
freedom, life. As the old beliefs of sin, sor- 
row, sickness, failure, disappear from our 
conscious and subconscious mind, their effects 
disappear also from the body. Why? Body 
and mind are essentially one. The body is a 
perpetual expression of the soul or mind. Our 
general mental attitude is constantly affecting 
for good or evil every cell, molecule and atom, 
all the fluids and the tissues, of the physical 
organism. This is the physiological fact. 

But more than this will take place. As a 
man steadfastly thinks the thoughts of the 
eternal truth, as he persistently and unfalter- 
ingly allies himself with the perfect Law of 
the Good, his whole environment begins to 
change also, lie finds that the spirit within 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 237 

him has a kind of magical power over his ex- 
ternal circumstances. When a man becomes 
consciously unified with the wonderful Law 
of the Good, he finds all things begin to go 
well with him, on all the planes of life. An- 
cient errors are dissolved out. The law of 
his evil fate or karma begins to be overcome 
by his knowledge of the truth, and he is car- 
ried forward swiftly in his moral and spirit- 
ual evolution. Such a man has entered into 
the vibrations of power, success and prosper- 
ity. He becomes more and more a center of 
attraction for all good things. He becomes 
a conscious sharer in the freedom and the op- 
ulence of God. Remember the teaching of 
Emerson, America's greatest prophet and 
philosopher. A corresponding revolution in 
things, he tells us, will attend the influx of 
the universal Spirit. He assures us that we 
create our own circumstances, and that the 
kingdom of man over external nature is a 
dominion which is now beyond his dream of 
God. And the word of Emerson is true. The 
era he foresaw is just at hand. The New 
Thought Movement is the herald of this new 
and glorious day. 

"All that we are is the result of what we 
have thought." This profound truth, which 



238 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

we have received from the Orient, holds good 
through all our incarnations, through all the 
processes of our evolution from the beginning 
to the ending. Let us think, then, the thoughts 
pertaining to the eternal truth. Let us speak, 
then, the words pertaining to the eternal truth. 

In all this that has preceded I have care- 
fully distinguished between spirit, soul, and 
body. The spirit is our real being, the Self, 
the Indwelling God; the soul or mind is our 
present consciousness of our spiritual reality; 
the body is the outer expression or manifesta- 
tion of the soul and spirit. 

There are those who deny our right to use 
these high affirmations of our perfection, 
power, life, freedom, on the ground that they 
are not strictly true. Certainly they are not 
true of the outer personality, the growing, de- 
veloping soul or mind ; but they are profound- 
ly true of the Higher Self. Man is really and 
interiorly a great and powerful consciousness, 
or rather superconsciousness. He determines 
largely his own destiny. He contains within 
himself an infinite order of life, by its very 
nature superior to growth and decay. He is 
the creator of countless forms or manifesta- 
tions through which he, the Immortal Ego, 
functions through endless cycles of time. The 



THE LAW OF THE GOOD 239 

supreme object of our life in time is this, — 
the gradual recognition of the God within us, 
the gradual restoration of this divinity to its 
rightful place and power. 

Let the soul then continue, day by day, to 
sing the exultant song of the spirit. Let it 
identify itself with the higher ranges of its 
being — with the glory of that true and divine 
Self which is sinless, diseaseless and deathless. 
The supreme statements of spiritual reality 
are, to him who knows how to use them, the 
very manna and the wine of life, the secret of 
divine attainment, the sources of health and 
perfection to mind and body. 1 

1 The above discussion puts the leadership of 
Emerson in the right place, without attributing to 
him what he did not do. A recent writer has tried 
to make out that Emerson originated and first used 
the New Thought, since Emerson and Margaret 
Fuller referred to the transcendentalist philosophy 
as "this new thought." "Others took up the term," 
says this writer, "and in the early days of the 
Unitarian Church its leaders referred to the Uni- 
tarian ideas as "this new thought." "This new 
thought" was really the thought of religion as a fine 
art rather than as fine theology or philosophy. . . . 
Later came Quimby and his class of students who 
went a step farther and organized faith itself for 
practice. _ In other words, transcendentalism and 
Unitarianism began the New Thought, and Quimby 
and his class of students . . . carried the re- 
aranging of religious into the purely metaphysical 
realm. ..." 

To say this is curiously to misread history. Uni- 



240 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 



tarianism did not lead to mental healing, and never 
has led to it. Although Quimby and the later fol- 
lowers came _ to think much like the Unitarians 
on certain points, they were one and all Orthodox 
in the beginning. To try to deprive Quimby of his 
work of discovery would be much like trying to 
discredit Christopher Columbus. It was the develop- 
ment of mental healing which made the New 
Thought possible, however many times the mere 
form of words "new thought," may have been used, 
just as it was the voyage of Columbus that made 
possible the voyages of those who later settled in 
America. The term New Thought as now used 
came into vogue in 1894, in Massachusetts, and its 
use then became general. — Ed. 



XXI 

THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 

[The following is compiled from various bulletins 
issued from Washington by the International New 
Thought Alliance, since April 1, 1916. These, the 
most recent statements, by new leaders, indicate the 
present trend of the New Thought.] 

The most startling thing about New 
Thought is that it is not new. It is the oldest 
thing in the world — the only thing new about 
it is the form in which it is presented to the 
world. New Thought is a new way of think- 
ing about man, God, and about thought itself. 
Thoughts are things, and things are thoughts. 
"Thing" and "thought" are twin words, and 
at their root are one 1 . . . These are some 
of the ideas that have received the name "New 
Thought" : that disease is of mental origin in- 

1 Of course the new leaders cannot mean that 
these terms are wholly interchangeable. They mean 
that thought is a reality, a formative power — not a 
vague or inefficient force — and that by right thought 
one can dispel adverse beliefs which credit too much 
power to "things" in the world of space and time. 
—Ed. 

241 



242 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

stead of material; that right thinking brings 
health to the body and prosperity to one's af- 
fairs; that right thoughts will heal perverted 
appetites like drunkenness and sinful living; 
that knowledge can conquer death; that God- 
love in the heart will destroy all enmity on the 
part of people and other creatures; and that 
there is no limit to thought and its power, 
except what thought puts upon itself. . . . 

The basis of New Thought belief is that 
all life is one, and that man is the highest ex- 
pression of that life, the fountainhead or 
first cause of which is Universal Energy or 
Force — God. It believes that man, through 
recognition of his unity with this force, has 
power to control absolutely his own fate and 
create conditions of life and environment to 
his own desire. 

Healing the sick is a strong feature of the 
New Thought movement, and great work has 
been, and is being done, by its followers, who, 
however, do not claim to possess any special 
power in accomplishing desired results. They 
know that this power is common property, and 
that it is at the disposal of all just as soon 
as they know how to claim and appropriate 
their own from the Universal Source. They 
take literally Christ's promise: "He that be- 



THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 243 

lieveth on Me, the works that I do shall he 
do also; and greater works than these shall 
he do;" and believe that the power to do His 
works is just as potent within us now as it 
was ever in any man; we can demonstrate 
this power simply through the realization of 
our possession of it. 1 

New Thought does not condemn any form 
of healing, metaphysical or physical, but re- 
gards them all as good; realizes that physi- 
cians and drugs are necessary to many lives 
at the present stage of development, but be- 
lieves that, as the race unfolds, all external 
aids will be discarded, and eventually it will 
be universally realized that all healing comes 
from within, and not from without. 

New Thought believes that the laws and 
processes of the universe are beneficent. This 
being true, there is absolutely no place for 
fear and worry. The disciple applies this 
philosophy to every experience of life. The 
result is a serenity and poise that are condu- 
cive to health, happiness and power. 

The New Thought believes in a common 
brotherhood with a divine Fatherhood. It 

x To this might be added the plea expressed in the 
foregoing chapters for a real science as the true 
basis for healing. — Ed. 



244 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

has not come to destroy, but to fulfil. While 
it is profoundly religious, it is non-sectarian. 
It teaches that there is no problem in life that 
cannot be solved by a knowledge of the law 
of God as written in the hearts of men and by 
obedience thereto 

The International New Thought Alliance is 
an affiliation of all teachers and leaders who 
are putting before the world the principles of 
New Thought. It is not an organization in 
the old sense of the word, but a union for 
constructive work, and it is not so much an 
institution as an influence. Article II of the 
Constitution and By-Laws of the Interna- 
tional New Thought Alliance defines its pur- 
poses as, "To teach the Infinitude of the 
Supreme One; the Divinity of Man and his 
Infinite Possibilities through the creative 
power of constructive thinking; and, obedience 
to the voice of the Indwelling Presence, which 
is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health, 
and Prosperity." Its motto is "Propaganda 
and Fellowship." It has no fixed creed or 
dogma, and it does not endeavor to regulate 
people's beliefs, but rather to make them be- 
lieve in themselves. . . . 

Many inquiries are received at headquar- 
ters asking this question, What is New 



THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 245 

Thought? To answer in a word, New 
Thought believes in the Good. The motto 
of the old crusaders was "God with us." The 
motto of the New Thought is "God in us." 
The consciousness of the divinity at the heart 
of things gives life a new meaning. If man 
is made in the image of God, he partakes of 
the divine nature. God is Love, God is 
Health, God is Abundance, God is Joy, God 
is Peace, God is Illuminated Intelligence, God 
is from Everlasting to Everlasting, in the eter- 
nal Here and Now, and man, who is the child 
of God, made in His image, partakes of all 
these things. This is the New Thought — the 
New Thought of God. He is not alien, He is 
not distant, He is "nearer than hands and 
feet," He is the one life and we are in that 
one life. All the Good belongs to us. It is 
our divine inheritance. 

"New Thought" is not a name or expres- 
sion used to designate any fixed system of 
thought, philosophy, or religion, but the term 
itself conveys the idea of a growing or devel- 
oping thought. When New Thought is mold- 
ed and formed into a system it ceases to be 
"New" Thought. Truth is not susceptible of 
monopoly or being made into a system. It 
cannot be encompassed by institutions, but its 



246 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

living Spirit is present in every manifested 
form and object of nature. 

The New Thought practises in the twenti- 
eth century what Jesus taught and practised 
in the first century. He taught healing — it 
practises healing. He said "Judge not that ye 
be not judged" — it discourages condemnation 
and sees the good in others. He admonished 
us to take no anxious thought for the morrow 
— it practises the divine supply. He taught 
faith — it makes faith the central principle of 
its theory and practice. He taught love and 
brotherhood — it is demonstrating unity and 
cooperation. The New Thought is the 
Christ-thought made new by being applied 
and proved in everyday affairs. 

The New Thought is positive. It would 
overcome sickness by health, error by truth, 
anger by love, evil by good. The things of 
God are all positive, for any negation is lack 
of God. . . . 

Life is organic. The life principle is always 
manifested through harmonious cooperation 
of different cells and organs. A movement 
that is vital must have the same harmonious 
cooperation between the individuals that com- 
pose it. True organization is the very opposite 
of crystallization, for crystallization means 



THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 247 

death, while organization of the right kind 
means life and life more abundant. 

Organization in no wise limits individual- 
ity, but rather supplements and completes it. 
There are certain things that many working 
together can do better than the same individ- 
uals can do working alone. Team-play is the 
keynote of this age — the most vital and pro- 
gressive age in history. 

An organization does not believe and, there- 
fore, should not dictate the belief of its mem- 
bers. Only individuals believe. Each man 
has his own creed. The very word is from 
credo, which is a singular verb in the first per- 
son, meaning "I believe." True organization 
has no right to interfere with this most sacred 
prerogative of the human soul. It is the di- 
vine right of each individual to believe what 
he pleases. As a man's home is his castle, so 
his conviction is sacred and belongs to a realm 
that society has no business to invade. With 
belief, organization has nothing to do, although 
the beliefs of its members have everything to 
do with organization, for they constitute its 
soul. In the true sense, individuals should 
have more liberty in cooperation and corre- 
lation than when working at divergent and 
cross purposes without being rightly related 



248 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

each to the other. Fcr what is liberty but the 
freedom to fill one's own part in the divine 
scheme, and how can we best fulfil this part 
except as we work in harmony with others 
who are filling their parts? 

Organizations are created to do things 
which can better be done by working together 
than by working singly. It is on these lines 
that the International New Thought Alliance 
is proceeding. It is merely a band of indi- 
vidual centers and individual teachers and 
followers working together in freedom for 
one common purpose, and this purpose is to 
carry the truth message and the healing mes- 
sage to all who are ready to receive. . . . 

The New Thought movement cannot be 
measured by numbers. It is not so much an 
institution as an influence. It is impossible 
to determine the exact extent to which this 
influence has affected modern thought, but 
even its enemies must admit that it has been 
considerable. Consciously or unconsciously it 
has literally affected millions of people. Signs 
of its far-reaching effects are seen on the 
stage, in the pulpit and in the press. The new 
fiction of the day abounds with it, many of the 
new plays are fashioned along similar lines, 
the moving pictures not infrequently feature 



THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 249 

it on the screen, while in many of the ortho- 
dox and liberal pulpits, especially in the large 
cities, may be heard "New Thought sermons." 

This is as we would have it, for the lead- 
ers of this movement are not so desirous of 
building up a great organization as they are 
of influencing the world for good. Many of 
our members are also members of churches 
and we are not only content that they should 
retain their church membership but often urge 
them to do so and to become better church 
members than before, teaching the truth ac- 
cording to the new illumination they have re- 
ceived. So long as the world is benefited, so 
long as the health, prosperity and happiness 
of men and women are augmented, so long as 
the cause of peace and brotherhood is ad- 
vanced, so long as the thoughts of men grow 
more constructive, more cheerful and more in 
harmony with the divine thought, we are sat- 
isfied. 

Whether it be from this cause, or others, 
or from many causes working in conjunction, 
a transformation is taking place in the thought 
of the world. It is apparent in many lands. 
Even in the midst of the terrible war in Eu- 
rope, perhaps as a reaction from its horrors, 
is growing up a new spirituality. 



250 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

[Comparing the above with the expositions of the 
New Thought in the preceding chapters, one finds 
it essentially the same in spirit. The newer leaders 
have lost the vagueness of some of the earlier writers, 
while gaining a directness of thought which some- 
times oversteps the mark. The individualism of the 
early days is still apparent, but also a spirit of co- 
operation and fellowship which the leaders of twenty 
years ago pleaded for almost in vain. The present 
clarifying statements concerning the true functions 
of an organization may well challenge the attention 
of those who adhere to the formal statements of 
conventional creeds. If the New Thought is essen- 
tially a "tendency," a "developing thought," not a 
fixity, it must be so regarded by its critics. 

But if "only individuals believe," each having a 
"creed of his own," in what sense is the New Thought 
still "a rational and positive spiritual philosophy," 
in the terms of Henry Wood? What is universal? 
What is "the science of life and happiness"? In 
what philosophical sense is all life "one"? The New 
Thought is indeed "not a fixed system of thought," 
and yet its adherents have held stoutly to certain 
propositions that may readily be stated in universal 
form, and submitted to the. tests of philosophic rea- 
son and carefully scrutinized experience. Thus Mr. 
Chesley pleads for the "Law of the Good," while all 
the essayists argue for certain psychological prin- 
ciples in accordance with the law of growth "from 
within outward." These and the other general prop- 
ositions may be put to the test in the light of 
science today. 

The above statement that man is "divine," with 



THE NEW THOUGHT TODAY 251 

"infinite" possibilities, would seem to imply that we 
can all be gods. It is profitable to contrast with 
this statement the more cautious plea in a foregoing 
essay that man is a "medium" of God, and Mr. 
Wood's effort to avoid both pantheism and indi- 
vidualism. We find the true clue, no doubt, in the 
more qualified proposition above, that "God is in 
us." This indeed is the real "Spirit of the New 
Thought." God of course is the only Divine being. 
Man lives, moves, and has his being in God, and 
may become in deepest truth a medium or instru- 
mentality, a child of God. What is needed is affirm- 
ative realization of the Divine presence. For, as the 
above reads, God is in us, not simply "with" us. 

If, then, we say that the inner life is the source 
of causality, we must mean that all true causes are 
spiritual, that is, all are from the Divine. A "men- 
tal" cause might be an affirmation suited to the 
individual merely, and it might express mere caprice. 
Any one is free to make this venture, to deem 
"environment" passive in contrast with his will. Any 
one may regard his thoughts as "things" in the sense 
that everything shall seem to be as he thinks. But 
if one wishes to find the universal basis of thought, 
one surely needs to avoid putting undue emphasis 
on the finite self. 

Mr. Quimby set a good example in this respect. 
He did not claim much for himself when he held 
that there is a "science of life and happiness," a 
science which, when stated in scriptural terms, he 
calls "Christian Science" in one of his articles. 
His emphasis was on the universal, on the prin- 
ciples and methods which are for all — the Christ- 



252 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

science of all time, in contrast with the facts of 
any particular phase of history. He did not claim 
much as a re-discoverer. The greatest value of his 
work lay in the method of silent spiritual healing 
whereby the Christ-science could be made real for 
any individual. The emphasis belongs on the science 
as divine, not on man as the one to use it in the 
service of others, although each must believe in 
himself as heir of the spiritual ages. 

The following essay may suggest a way to re- 
estimate the "Spirit of the New Thought" in this 
connection. It was called out by one of the usual 
criticisms of the New Thought when the writer was 
pleading for a return to the Gospels as clues to 
spiritual healing. The critic, a theologian, claimed 
that the Gospel works of healing were different in 
kind, hence that one must first draw doctrinal dis- 
tinctions between the Lord and man, between "divine 
miracles of healing" for a purpose in a given age, 
and the merely "magical miracles" of Christian 
Science and the New Thought. The writer con- 
tends, however, that one should judge the works of 
healing today as if one believed that God lives 
today, that the divine kingdom is inseparable from 
the soul. May we not see a purpose, then, in the 
healing movement which began with Quimby, and 
which has differentiated into all the present-day 
branches — Christian Science; Divine Science; Prac- 
tical Christianity as advocated by Unity, Kansas 
City; and the various phases of the New Thought? 
Should we not interpret this movement from within, 
in the light of actual experience?] 



XXII 
THE LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 1 

BY HORATIO W. DRESSER 

To call a process divine is tacitly to admit 
that in some respects it eludes the finest anal- 
ysis. Yet this should not keep us from the 
effort to learn whatever can be known. We 
say that love is divine, but we endeavor to 
grow in appreciation of its beauty and its 
power, and to understand its influence in hu- 
man life. The universe is in the profoundest 
sense a manifestation or product of the Di- 
vine mind, replete with purposes that surpass 
our knowledge ; yet we do not hesitate to study 
it with the conviction that our own reason is 
akin to this mind and these purposes. Since 
God is the ultimate life of all processes, there 
is a sense in which every investigation is a 
quest for the divine, whatever we may say for 
short when" we speak as if nature were a pow- 
er in itself. To assign all supremacy to God 
is to start aright, and to bear in mind the rel- 

1 Reprinted from Nautilus, Holyoke, Mass., 1914. 
253 



254 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

ativity of things human and natural. Hence 
one employs the adjective "divine" not for the 
sake of making special claims but rather to 
disclaim special knowledge, intimating that 
far beyond there lie the depths of the "un- 
speakable wisdom and knowledge of God." 

From a once prevalent point of view, what- 
ever is divine was long ago revealed once for 
all; hence the day of wonders and immediate 
evidences of the divine presence has forever 
gone from the world. This meant that a par- 
ticular interpretation put upon the Bible was 
final. But this has never been proved. The 
simplest of spiritually-minded men may at any 
time discern a truth which has escaped the ec- 
clesiastics. If the Bible contains divine truth 
this truth is in part concealed, since the mere 
letter is often obscure and conflicting. If it 
contains divine truth its wisdom is universal, 
and we may expect to discover its meaning 
to the end of time. If the truth in the Bible 
is from the same source as the universe at 
large, the chief value of the Bible may be said 
to be its power to explain the principles mani- 
fested in the universe and written in the minds 
of men. Hence one who really possesses the 
clue should be able to discern the divine truth 
everywhere. Thus nature at any point is an 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 255 

earnest of the divine, for him who has eyes. 
The laws of God are written in nature's 
events, and man as an interpreter is in no 
sense alien to the processes he would under- 
stand. The truer the insight the less is one 
dependent on authorities or books, the more 
time and thought may be given to actual life 
today, in contrast with the study of history. 
Time brings changes, and unless we are open 
to the living event we may miss the divine 
message to our age. It is more important to 
live deeply in the present than to know the 
past. 

History shows that new events are readily 
declared to be miracles by those who are ig- 
norant of the laws implied in them. The more 
intelligent men become the less they believe 
in miracles. Today we seldom hear them 
mentioned, for we have grown accustomed to 
the thought of law. Yet we may well bear 
in mind the fact that in every field of knowl- 
edge familiar to us there were pioneers whose 
first works seemed magical. Many of us are 
still dwellers in that vague realm where won- 
ders seem possible. There are "signs and 
wonders" which even the wisest have not yet 
explained. We may well try to penetrate be- 
hind the myth or credulous belief to the core 



256 SPIRIT OF THE- NEW THOUGHT 

of fact, and press forward to the time when 
the true explanation shall appear. It is im- 
portant, too, to keep our minds open to re- 
currences of events which were once pro- 
nounced miracles because produced by some 
pioneer or prophet. To allege that "the day 
of miracles is past" is to close the door even 
to the inner core of reality concealed within 
the so-called miracle. 

He who starts with a dogmatic or historic 
judgment concerning spiritual works is likely 
to turn to his age with disparagement on his 
lips. Equipped as he believes himself to be 
with the right theology and the true distinc- 
tion between divine "miracles" and the ordi- 
nary deeds of men, he believes himself able 
to discern all the truth there is in a new work, 
say of healing, wrought today. The proba- 
bility is that he does not see the new happen- 
ing in its true light at all. 

Truly to estimate the recent occurrence one 
must first ask : What has happened ; what are 
the facts? The next step is to ask, How can 
the facts best be explained ? In the quest for 
an adequate explanation one may well consult 
the wise books of the ages, while also seeking 
the aid of the most thoughtful people today. 

Let us frankly admit that works of healing 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 257 

are susceptible of many explanations, and that 
each of us may seem to have the right ex- 
planation simply because our view of the mat- 
ter harmonizes with what we have previously 
believed. If we are to seek an explanation 
which may rightfully be called divine, we must 
take a number of supposably adequate theo- 
ries and put them to the test. The theologian 
who claims to know precisely how Jesus healed 
the sick, and to know this so well as to be con- 
vinced that there are no works of divine heal- 
ing wrought today may well be challenged to 
prove his assumption by his works. As a 
matter of fact, they best know how Jesus 
healed who know most from actual experi- 
ence about the therapeutical works even now 
taking place among us. 

Fortunately for them, those who led the 
way in establishing the modern healing move- 
ment were not handicapped by theology. They 
themselves were healed by divine power, and 
then power came to heal others. So the belief 
has spread. The actual works of healing, the 
"signs following" are the true tests. Given 
these signs, we may account for them as best 
we can. But there are the facts. 

The difficulty in the case of certain types of 
theology is that so many theoretical distinc- 



258 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

tions are first insisted on that there is no room 
for belief in the power to heal or in the facts. 
That is, we are told that we should first draw 
a sharp line between the divine and the hu- 
man, and avoid the assumption that man is 
divine. When these and other distinctions 
have been drawn the divine is already so far 
from us that it is no wonder we cannot be- 
lieve in divine healing. 

Starting the other way around, let us say 
that the divine is infinitely near, and that it is 
a question of taking down barriers and dis- 
tinctions. We may even say with unqualified 
truth, Everything is divine. The trouble is 
that we do not see its divine power and mean- 
ing. We have separated ourselves from God 
and wandered afar. We have asserted our 
wills. We have become emotionally intense, 
full of fear, excitement, anxiety. Let us then 
be inwardly still and know that God is nigh. 

If we once gain the idea we may turn to 
any aspect of the wonderful processes going 
on within us and find it divine. From this 
point of view nature's entire recuperative proc- 
ess is evidence of the divine wisdom, and no 
adequate explanation of it can be made save 
in terms of the divine. Nothing could be more 
providential than the wonderful restorative 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 259 

processes aroused into action whenever the 
natural functions are impaired. Nor can we 
find more marked evidences of wise provision 
than the strong instincts which lead us to seek 
and to maintain health. The conviction which 
assures us that health is our birthright, and 
the strong will which stirs us to fight for life 
even when all odds appear to be against us 
are also evidences of this wise provision. The 
trouble with us is not that we make too much, 
but that we do not make enough of the di- 
vine. If we really lived according to the di- 
vine we should be well in soul and body. 
Even if we lived in all respects according to 
natural law ; not this artificial, furnace-heated, 
nervous, hurrying existence, we should be 
well, physically speaking. Any passing ill that 
might then arise would be quickly cared for 
by nature unaided. How much more we might 
accomplish, however, if we had more knowl- 
edge of the divine presence ! 

While disagreeing with those who draw 
distinctions which put the divine far from our 
powers, we may well admit that there are dif- 
ferent levels of manifestation, degrees of near- 
ness to the divine, hence degrees of healing. 
God is indeed near us in all nature, if we have 
eyes and wisdom to discern His presence. He 



260 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

is far nearer in human social life, and in our 
individual thought. He is nearer still in those 
ineffable moments when in unison of feeling 
we lose all sense of separateness from Him. 

Again, it makes a difference whether or not 
we are aware of the divine. All natural heal- 
ing is in the profoundest sense divine, yet it 
may seem like a merely physical process un- 
less we approach it with a certain conscious- 
ness. We are also divinely healed when the 
mind is dispossessed of its errors, its anxie- 
ties, fears and upheavals, however we may 
seem to escape from these; but how much 
greater is the sense of power when we know 
the one source of all healing. Hence it is well 
to take note of various types of thought in 
accordance with their nearness to or remote- 
ness from the divine. 

It greatly matters, for example, whether 
there is conscious dependence on the divine 
love and wisdom or an assumption that the 
human mind plays the decisive part as if God 
did not exist. Mental healing based on hyp- 
notism may be largely the impress of one mind 
on another, although good results may be 
wrought despite the attempt of the human will 
to control. The same may be true of any ther- 
apeutic practice in which an attempt is made 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 261 

to transmit thought to the mind of a sick per- 
son. Again, mental healing may be superfi- 
cial or ephemeral, its purpose being to dispel 
fear, allay excitement, induce quietness, or re- 
store confidence; just as you or I might con- 
verse with another to convince him of his 
folly without claiming divine aid. Or, it may 
occur through affirmation by displacing annoy- 
ing mental pictures in favor of those that rest 
the mind and give peace. In a deeper sense 
mental healing may look forward to something 
more than the banishment of disease, and may 
lead to the development of inner control or 
poise. Thus its devotee may take up the reg- 
ular practice of meditation, and endeavor to 
understand and eliminate all disquieting con- 
ditions of mind. This healing does not take 
the place of natural restorative processes, but 
fosters the type of life which most directly 
accords with them. By employing such meth- 
ods we may pass almost insensibly from men- 
tal to spiritual healing, from ephemeral to per- 
manent work. 

Many who are now firm believers in divine 
healing were wholly without faith in the di- 
vine healing presence when they began to 
break free from bondage to physical special- 
ists and medicine. Then came a new depen- 



262 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

dence for a time, after they had acquired the 
habit of visiting a mental healer whenever an 
illness of any sort appeared. The next ad- 
vance was perhaps through the realization that 
an educational or regenerative process must 
supplement the changes wrought through the 
silent treatment. Thus social healing may 
lead to self-healing and the latter to a realiza- 
tion of the true meaning of healing. Once it 
seemed to be a question of banishing haunting 
mental pictures and fears, but now it becomes 
a matter of attitudes, inner receptivity, regen- 
erative faith. 

By spiritual healing, then, in contrast with 
mental healing, one means a process which 
brings about a real, permanent change in the 
inner life of the individual ; not the mere over- 
coming of physical ills that may recur, or the 
dismissal of errors not understood by the mind 
that turns away from them. Whatever the 
accompanying physical and mental ills, and the 
processes by which they are overcome, a heal- 
ing process becomes spiritual when the inner 
life is decisively touched and changed; when 
there is a change of attitude from hatred, an- 
ger, distrust, despair, selfish emotion, self- 
centeredness, or self-assertion, to an attitude 
of faith, hope, love, confidence, or whatever 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 263 

uplifting spiritual state may be required to 
overcome old habits. In this sense spiritual 
healing is inseparable from moral rebirth. 
Such healing must presently become conscious, 
since it pertains to a person's character and 
intelligence, and calls for thoughtful coop- 
eration ; whereas mental healing may be most- 
ly accomplished by another. Spiritual healing 
may indeed begin through the ministrations 
of another, and may involve what is called a 
change of heart deeply affecting the religious 
life as a whole. Whatever the instrumentality 
or the results, the change is such that the some- 
time sufferer, now quickened from within, is 
no longer content to lead a life of bondage to 
external, sensuous things. 

Such a change is shown, for example, in 
the daily habits, the tastes that become refined, 
the opportunities sought for self-expression or 
service. It is also manifested in the growth 
of a composure not sought or attained through 
mental control alone, but coming rather as one 
of "the fruits of the Spirit," and as a constant 
resource that can be drawn upon at will. 
Again, it may be seen in a lessening of antag- 
onisms, the relaxation of tensions, the dying 
out of adverse criticism; and the attainment 
of new attitudes of contentment, sympathy and 



264 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

charity. Such changes also come with the ac- 
quisition of a philosophy which lifts all mat- 
ters of moment to the level of reflective 
thought. For he is spiritually healed who 
learns the real causes of the changes he under- 
goes, and who endeavors to conform to the 
powers working through his nature for its 
betterment. Thus he may come to believe in 
time in the ever-present wisdom and love of 
God in contrast with a former belief which 
separated God and man. 

Spiritual healing is distinguished from men- 
tal healing because directly attributed to the 
divine power as the real efficiency. This 
means far more than the acceptance of a the- 
ory regarding the restorative processes of mind 
and body, it means an attitude and conviction 
very different in type from the attitude 
and theory of the mental healer. For the one 
who attributes the efficiency to an immediate 
manifestation of divine power on the spirit- 
ual level regards himself as an instrument of 
the divine wisdom. 1 Consequently, he endeav- 
ors to cultivate the kind of life most in ac- 
cord with the divine presence. Such consecra- 
tion involves sure belief in the inward light, 
ready to shine upon the particular pathway 

1 This was Quimby's teaching. See above, Chap. V. 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 265 

and make known the wisest course for the oc- 
casion. It implies something more than com- 
placency or poise in oneself. It could hardly 
be called receptivity or humility, for these are 
apt to be negative. It calls for a particular 
attitude of cooperation with divine leadings 
in the endeavor to be a bearer of light in the 
dark places of the world. It also implies faith 
in inner or spiritual perception, the conviction 
that the powers and conditions discerned 
through such insight involve the deeper reali- 
ties of life. 

It is difficult to describe this attitude of co- 
operation with the divine because it is attained 
through personal experience involving certain 
trials and failures. In contrast with therapeu- 
tists who claim too much for the finite self, as 
if the human will were the central efficiency, 
one is apt to overdo one's humility and self- 
effacement. In truth, one should not be any 
less positive and affirmative but in a different 
way. One may rightfully believe that the hu- 
man self is an efficient instrument of divine 
power and employ all the volitions of the self 
with as much vigor as if the human will had 
power of its own. Nothing short of this flood- 
tide of activity will achieve the desired results 
in crucial cases. But this activity is not of 



266 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

the sort that calls attention to itself. It may 
spring out of the greatest calmness and peace. 
Thought may be relatively quiescent. The 
emotions may be wholly still. The point is 
that the human spirit as a whole is active. 
The spirit is "the heart" in us, that side of 
man's nature which lies open to God, the im- 
mortal part, "heir of the ages" and superior 
to the trammels of sense. In other words, the 
spirit is an individuation of God, manifesting 
a divine purpose and serving others. Man is 
never more truly himself than when most ac- 
tive as a spiritual being. Yet in another sense 
he is never so unobtrusive, never so free from 
self-assertion and that independence of will 
which closes the door to divine guidance. 

There is a respect then in which one cannot 
undertake to describe divine healing in its ful- 
ness, or try to explain it. The highest cannot 
be described, nor can it be explained, as we 
ordinarily count explanation. For God is the 
real healer, it is the divine love that heals. 
Man is not immediately conscious of the cen- 
tral activity which, on the divine side, is at 
once wisdom and love, light and life, any more 
than he is aware of the pure divine essence 
that quickens men to pursue beauty or attain 
ultimate truth. Man brings to the experience 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 267 

of divine communion a nature which may in- 
deed be immediately one with this incoming 
or ever-present life of the divine. We may 
infer the existence of this nature from the re- 
sults which ensue. But we do not feel all the 
elements. When we learn to know the self 
in this deeper sense we are already a stage 
removed from pure immediacy. Instead of 
knowing ourselves as single-hearted, we find 
that we feel, we think, we will; we are actu- 
ated by a prevailing love, by desires and pur- 
poses; we differ in type, in capacity, in gifts. 
What we feel and try to make our own has al- 
ready taken on the forms of our nature, and 
possibly we have impeded the divine flow to 
some extent. Hence we are constrained to 
say that there is more in the experience of 
divine communion than we can describe. 
What we omit may be the most important 
element. Each must learn it from experience. 
The same is true, however, in every other 
field of human life where the self is seen at 
its best. If, as Emerson assures us, we are 
at our best when spontaneous, the element of 
attention is lacking which must be present if 
we are to tell whereof our virtue consists. 
When we act more wisely than we know, and 
speak more truly, we are both less and more 



268 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

than the conscious self of our other waking 
moments. No one can reveal the whole se- 
cret of his genius. 

To apprehend the divine law of healing you 
yourself must be touched by the divine love, 
or be an agent of ministration to another. One 
learns through experience to know the differ- 
ence between a relatively external state and 
one in which the divine life is more intimate- 
ly present. It becomes a question of the atti- 
tude of heart and will, thought and conduct 
most in accord with the divine life, as one 
thinks of that life in ideal terms. Hence the 
emphasis one places on receptivity, openness, 
readiness. It is plain that there must be con- 
secration to the divine wisdom, with the belief 
that it is adequate to meet the occasion. One 
is ready to give or withhold, as one may be 
led ; whereas the mental healer might be bent 
on controlling the case in any event. One real- 
izes that of oneself one has no efficiency. Yet 
it is no less clear that one must believe in one's 
true self as a means of communication in or- 
der to be of any help at all. We are therefore 
taking into account all that was said above 
about natural restorative processes and mental 
healing at its best, and lifting these considera- 
tions to the divine level. For as we cannot 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 269 

dispense with the mental imagery, the realiza- 
tions and ideals, we cannot omit the human 
agency. That would be to think of the divine 
as functioning in sheer emptiness, as if the 
Holy Spirit were a kind of ghost. 

We are in a certain situation in life, physi- 
cally, mentally, morally, spiritually; in a cer- 
tain environment, social atmosphere, surround- 
ed by mental and other influences of which 
we know but little; we have a certain voca- 
tion, daily activities, interests, needs, prob- 
lems. There is a wisdom in precisely this sit- 
uation, a wisdom that is immanent in the situ- 
tion itself; and we must not ignore this our 
condition in seeking divine light. The divine 
life is taking a certain course through us, is 
moving toward an end with transcendent 
providence and sustaining love. The prime 
need for each of us is adjustment to the life 
at hand, oftentimes to the very moment. This 
cannot be an adjustment of will simply, since 
there is intimate correspondence in two direc- 
tions. 

Our external or physical condition is open 
to the influence of the natural world, and 
thus there is a reason why we are just where 
we find ourselves, with this particular inher- 
itance. Our inner state is open to the influ- 



270 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

ence of the spiritual world, with all that this 
implies; thus there is a reason why we are 
spiritually as we are. Know yourself com- 
pletely and you will know these influences, and 
the wisdom of life's present situation. Know 
the influences that affect, hinder, help and sus- 
tain you; and you will understand yourself. 
In the end it will be the truth that will set you 
free, however urgently you may affirm your 
freedom before you have seen the wisdom of 
life as it is. You must learn to close the door 
to some influences, to open them more widely 
to others. 

In order to think out our relationships to 
these influences, we must begin far back, far 
enough back so that we can ground our con- 
sciousness in the thought of the Spirit and 
hold fast to it, viewing the whole of life spir- 
itually. What we need is a vision of the uni- 
verse springing from the Spirit, taking form 
in space and time, fulfilling the uses of ex- 
ternal things, and yet having no life or reality 
except through the Spirit. To adopt this point 
of view is to regard all change, all life as pro- 
ceeding outward, and all causality as spiritual. 
Starting thus with the thought of God as the 
inmost ground of all being, we realize in a 
more intimate sense how profoundly true this 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 271 

is of man. We are essentially spiritual beings, 
sons of God. We already dwell in the eternal 
kingdom, we are in the spiritual world now, 
sustained by heavenly powers. This our in- 
most life is the truly real, permanent life, the 
mode of being which will go on continuously 
from the present through the change called 
death. We are guided and strengthened in 
this our interior life whether in the least de- 
gree aware of it or not, and even though we 
claim all decisive activity as our own. The 
truth that sets us free is the knowledge of this 
our inmost life as fundamentally real. Hence 
it is well to accustom oneself to the point of 
view by adopting it in thought, almost as if 
nothing else were true, as if we were even 
now in heaven among the angels, far from 
this natural existence. 

This inmost life is inclusive, however, of 
our transitory existence, since it is through 
this that we are brought to consciousness and 
into freedom. Hence we need not call our 
external life an illusion or dream. A dream 
it is indeed if we walk about among these 
mundane things as if they were imperishable 
substances existing by themselves. A sheer 
illusion it surely is if we attribute our suffer- 
ings and our joys to these externals, as if the 



272 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

mind were a mere shadow of the brain. It is 
unreal indeed if in any sense taken by itself, 
instead of in the light of its proper place in 
the scale of realities extending from the re- 
sistant rock up through the flexibilities of the 
atmosphere to the enduring beauty and power 
of heavenly things. Nature is profoundly real 
if viewed in the light of its gifts to the soul 
of man, and the purposes which it fulfils. 
Thus its obstinacy melts before us, its forces 
assume the form of enlivening influences 
meant for our good, and we look abroad up- 
on it as in every sense friendly, akin to our 
spirits far more than to our physical organs 
and functions. 

If we could always dwell consciously in the 
inmost life, willing and thinking in accord 
with the divine love and wisdom, the problems 
of our existence would be solved. Our real 
problem is to live from the center, from the 
sources of supply within the heart, while still 
mingling with our fellows in the world, com- 
pleting the work which must be done before we 
can be free. Caught within the enticements 
and limitations of external existence, we seem 
to be mere creatures of outward circum- 
stances. Hence we retreat, give way to fear, 
despondency. Hence the endless quest for ex- 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 273 

ternal causes of our afflictions, causes that 
can never be found, and the search for reme- 
dies that never can be discovered. But when 
we view all these matters from within we 
realize that they are fluid and responsive in 
the presence of the Spirit, that it is Spirit and 
not matter that creates. 

The first great truth, then, is that the spir- 
itual life is more real, is the life of causes; 
that we stand where we do today because 
of spiritual activities, whatever the appear- 
ances may be. If these appearances show 
that we are disturbed, unhealthy and in ex- 
ternal misery generally, it may be difficult 
at first to trace the connection between the 
inner and the outer. But looking within we 
discover after a time that we are drawn 
in two directions. There are forces at work 
to keep us precisely as we are, to hold 
us in our habits, our creeds, our fixed atti- 
tudes of judgment, our likes and dislikes; on 
the other hand, there are creative, heavenly 
powers gently leading us away. Living be- 
tween, aware of the conflict but not of its 
causes, we rebel and struggle, often opposing 
the very powers that would set us free. It 
seems a cruel affliction that we should thus 
suffer, and we wander up and down over the 



274 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

face of the earth, seeking some one wise 
enough to clear away the mystery of our suf- 
fering. Wonderful to relate, there is no mys- 
tery at all when we gain this inner vision. 
For the suffering is not a reality in itself, nor 
is any disease an independent reality. The 
suffering is due to a certain combination of 
forces all of which are good. We are igno- 
rant, unaware of the real situation, we turn 
from the hand that would set us free. It is 
not necessary to go anywhere, to wait for 
death or to try by some occult scheme to pene- 
trate the spiritual world. All that we need is 
another point of view with respect to that 
which is most intimately at hand. 

Try, then, to gain the vision. The divine 
life by constant inflow, by sustaining love, by 
guiding wisdom provides all that we need; is 
most intimately near every pulse-beat, every 
thought and affection. Not for a moment do 
we exist without that inflow. Entering the 
soul in the inmost recesses, it tends to spread 
through our spiritual selfhood, into the ful- 
ness of the mind, into all regions of the 
nervous and physical systems. If we oppose 
it at the center by fear, doubt, impatience, self- 
assertion, or any of the other attitudes that 
impede, we close the gate at the most unfor- 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 275 

tunate place. You realize that this is true 
when you are torn by inner friction, distressed, 
distraught, antagonistic toward some one. Be- 
come placid. there, settle into restfulness and 
trust, and you find that it makes all the differ- 
ences in the world. Consider what must be the 
divine ideal, with all its possibilities of health 
and freedom, its gifts of goodness and powers, 
the opportunities to lead the life of joyous 
service. There is no space and time in this 
ideal world. We are not separated by walls 
or miles, by days or hours from the divine life. 
God dwells not in space, nor in temples made 
with hands. We dwell in Him, and these vis- 
ible things we behold about us are so many 
opportunities for thoughtful response, corre- 
sponding to our inward states. Our real ex- 
istence is the life of our inward states. Almost 
in a twinkling these could be changed if we 
could transfer our consciousness to the heav- 
enly creative powers, giving ourselves in full 
measure to the divine love and wisdom. Our 
outward conditions would not change so 
quickly, and there would be some which were 
taken on long ago through inheritance that 
belong wholly with this outer garment, some- 
thing to be cast off. But the point of interest 
is the inner center with the possibilities of 



276 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

renewal and of transformation open before us 
there. 

There is a sense in which everything we 
need to make us morally and spiritually well, 
to give us power over the physical organism 
through the mind, is already true, and merely 
waits to be seen. God as eternal spirit is here 
now, man as finite spirit is here in a little spir- 
itual world of his own, existent in the great 
cosmos of spiritual beings. What we most 
eagerly long for and need is already here, al- 
ready real and true in the inmost sense. To 
turn to the inmost is to put the soul in accord 
with this the eternally true. Hence one dwells 
on the ideal of health, harmony and freedom ; 
one turns in thought to the divine peace, the 
infinitely tender and all-loving heart, the all- 
comprehending wisdom. One thinks of the 
divine life as encompassing our own, hence of 
the divine mind as knowing all that we see 
and far more, knowing it all in relation, con- 
sequently not as mere experience, sorrow or 
suffering. Nothing is lost that is real even 
for the natural man in rude contact with rock 
or tree, with heat or cold, or the fury of the 
whirlwind. What is gone is the merely ex- 
ternal point of view, with the misconception 
that grew out of it. The whirlwind is still 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 277 

there and the voice of God is heard therein, 
but it is now "the still small voice'' that af- 
fords the central clue. 

Thus to distinguish without too greatly 
separating the outer from the inner is to be 
prepared to enter into the thought of the di- 
vine presence so as to realize it with depth 
and vividness. To realize the presence of God 
in this intimate manner is not simply to think 
about the divine nature, meanwhile permitting 
one's thoughts to play at random in other 
fields, but to detach one's consciousness from 
outer activities and attach it to the idea of the 
divine as a vivifying power, through feeling, 
through actual experience. Thus there is a 
distinct awareness of change from lower to 
higher, a contrast between inner peace and all 
outer turmoil. Yet the transition is not in- 
duced through emotional intensity. Nor is 
it the result of mere quiescence. The experi- 
ence is more truly a return to the sources of 
power in which the soul becomes at home, not 
in mere submission, but in active relation to 
a dynamic center. One's realization is that 
whatever is needed is here, whatever power or 
wisdom one would seek is already at hand 
in the deep recesses of the inner world. Thus 
all thought of remoteness in space or time is 



278 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

overcome in the uplifting consciousness that 
there is but one world, the eternal spiritual 
world of which outward and temporal things 
are aspects only. 

"Closer He is than breathing, 
And nearer than hands and feet." 

All figures of speech are inadequate which 
undertake to exemplify the full relationship. 
Even the symbol of the vine and the branches 
fails us, and all symbols taken together. The 
presence itself is transcendent, infinite, reach- 
ing out beyond the bounds of all language, all 
thought. The essence cannot be told. Yet 
all these symbols and statements convey the 
great truth in part. They suffice if they lift 
our thought beyond the manifesting forms to 
the Spirit that quickens them all, to the light 
which shines through the lamp of the heart in 
every human soul. Both light and lamp are 
from the same source. The wisdom that is 
discovered has fashioned the receptacle in 
which it is found. The love that comes by 
influx must come into a vital center, or is 
found within that vital center, whichever way 
you phrase the matter. The important con- 
sideration in any case is that the divine is 
within. 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 279 

The chief tendency to guard against when 
we endeavor to realize the divine presence as 
a healing power is diffusiveness or vagueness. 
One's realization should be even more definite 
than prayer as ordinarily employed. It may 
become as concrete as the spoken word, the 
single word, "peace." Indeed, the word is the 
Spirit made definite, the creative word that 
went forth to fashion the world, the word that 
took form in the Bible, and became flesh in 
"the son of man." Can you become inwardly 
still enough to hear the creative word of the 
Spirit calling you into power? Can you yield 
your allegiance to physical things sufficiently 
to transfer your full thought to the message 
whispered in the inner ear? If you catch its 
gentle cadences it may touch your whole being 
with peace, and give you a feeling of new 
life. Or, if listening for another's benefit, you 
may well venture to speak with confidence the 
word power that will arouse the dormant soul. 

Recall the time when you were in bondage 
to external things, hence to slight changes in 
your physical feelings. Aware of the slightest 
change in temperature, you laid aside your 
wrap; a moment later, feeling slightly cool, 
you drew your wrap around your shoulders 
again; and so on through the day you re- 



280 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

sponded to physical feelings. If a slight illness 
occurred, you attached a name to it, making 
use of purely physical means to banish the 
malady. This name was a symbol of your 
bondage. You were totally unable to separate 
between yourself and your states, your inner 
states and your physical conditions ; say rather 
that your mental life was a slave to your pass- 
ing physical changes. But little by little you 
have been able to make the separation, to ac- 
quire an inner center, a point of view grow- 
ing out of it, and a method of applying your 
inward power so as to gain control of your 
thought and emotions. Then came the great 
discovery that you need not keep your Chris- 
tianity for Sundays and for charity, but that 
this inner pathway you have been following 
is precisely the one Jesus bade men follow 
that they might discern the kingdom "which 
cometh without observation." 

The Christianity of the Master, you remem- 
ber, applied to the whole individual ; it touched 
men's hearts to make them love their fellow- 
men ; it touched men's minds to make them 
think pure thoughts and will righteous deeds ; 
and it summoned each person to go forth into 
the world, carrying the lamp of the Spirit into 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 281 

the dark places. This message was to the 
needy, to those who should be made whole. 

Well may we ask what it means to be made 
"whole" in the Christian sense. We are apt 
to think of wholeness as physical health, or 
as moral soundness according to the standards 
of society. What if we should say that to 
be made whole is to be self-consistent? This 
proposition sends our thought rather far afield 
for the moment, according to our view of the 
human self. If you were self -consistent you 
would no longer be greatly subject to any 
circumstance or influence whatever, in any 
social atmosphere you would be the same per- 
son. And what is sameness or identity, how 
many of us have thought it out to see in 
what sense a person should seek to be one, 
a whole or unit? Not until you relate your- 
self to your brothers and to your Lord do you 
make any headway whatever. You cannot 
serve two masters. Your clue must be taken 
from the divine purpose as nearly as you can 
grasp it. That purpose is already like a single 
thread running through your experiences from 
the first fragmentary feelings up to the present 
moment. You are one, you are whole from 
that point of view. If you can catch the vision 
you will have a sort of panorama of your life 



282 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

showing the divine providence in it all. For 
even in your mistakes, your wanderings due 
to your freedom, the divine wisdom was with 
you. Come, then, to the center and gain the 
vision. 

Why is it, when the law is so plain, that we 
make headway so slowly? There are various 
reasons in different cases. Some of us have 
not quite grasped the law : we strive too hard, 
trying to accomplish too much in our own 
might. The lesson is that through our whole 
being the divine life is coursing, ready to set 
us free, but impeded at points by our own 
attitude, our volitions and thoughts. Let us 
try then to be more truly open. Let us open 
up and out from the center, somewhat as the 
physical organism responds in the warm sun- 
light and the fresh air, quickened by nature's 
heat. The upward look of childlike affection 
and receptivity is a great help, so is the out- 
going affection when we forget ourselves for 
another. We do not need to work in our own 
might, but rather to make ourselves willing 
instruments of heavenly wisdom and life. 
The divine Spirit is really working within and 
for us all the while. Are you ready to let 
your life be lived for you, to be healed through 
and through ? 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 283 

Again, there are those who do not make 
effort enough, paradoxical as it may seem.- 
These people grasp the idea in a way, they 
want to know the divine presence, yet they do 
not take a sufficiently pronounced attitude to 
invite results. Creatures of habit and estab- 
lished modes of thought, they do not realize 
that the convincing experience of the divine 
presence which those have who are able to 
heal and to be healed, is acquired by going 
apart to drop the outer world and separate 
the inmost consciousness from physical sensa- 
tion. They are thinking so much about ex- 
ternal conditions, the needs and woes of 
people, that they cannot yield their personal 
activity long enough to give themselves to the 
heavenly powers. The inner vision is no 
mere gift of the moment bestowed on us while 
we think and question, raising objections and 
weighing difficulties ; it is a product of months 
and years of steady interest and activity. 
Some people, then, need to make a more rad- 
ical step, willing to yield every cherished be- 
lief for the one great possession. 

Further still, there are those who have not 
yet learned the difference between the mental 
healing which rids the mind of certain of its 
errors, fancies and haunting mental pictures, 



284 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

but does not touch the inner center, does not 
solve the soul's problem; and that spiritual 
healing which touches the soul. We gain help 
on this point if we consider the difference be- 
tween merely mental healing and the new 
birth or spiritual regeneration. The simpler 
and more superficial process may be compared 
to the work of clearing a bit of woodland. 
At first one rakes away the leaves to be 
burned, trimming the trees here and there, 
and cutting away the underbrush. Then the 
severe work with the axe begins. What shall 
root out the deepest obstacles? What is it 
in our nature that needs most to be healed? 
Is it of any avail to cut away on the outside, 
while leaving the deep roots to spring into 
activity again? Or shall we say that the 
deeper roots need not be torn up but will be 
transformed by a deep-lying life ready to 
work within us when we have tried various 
processes of pruning and given them up as 
failures ? 

It seems impossible to condemn the deeper 
roots of our nature, as if our self-centered- 
ness, wilfulness and other forms of selfishness 
were absolutely wrong. Some of our attitudes 
surely are wrong, and it is a positive help at 
times to admit our failures, to learn the lesson 



LAWS OF DIVINE HEALING 285 

of mistakes, clearing them away as we might 
the dry leaves in our wood-lot. But the deep 
root of the will springs from the divine love, 
and the deep root of the understanding from 
the divine wisdom. Look deeply enough and 
you will find the point of view gradually 
changing from the self that asserts, interferes 
and becomes centered in its own affections to 
the divine life that creates. To make this 
transition is gradually to gain the vision of 
which I have spoken, to lay down one's im- 
pediments, ceasing to act as if from oneself, 
and realizing that a great process of renewal 
is going on. One feels like dropping on one's 
knees in humility and gratitude at the dis- 
covery. 

We need, then, to be cured of our selfish- 
ness, to be renewed by the transforming of 
will and understanding from within ; and here 
is the divine life engaged in that process. 
When we gain the vision and look back, we 
realize that many experiences which we took 
to be struggles with a new disease recently 
taken on were evidences of a deeper process, 
casting to the surface whatever was impure. 
Thus as we progressed the quickening life 
touched nearer and nearer the center. Some 
of us have been touched so to the quick that 



286 SPIRIT OF THE NEW THOUGHT 

if we had not been sustained by a great peace 
and faith we would have passed from this 
natural world. Having passed through such 
a testing-time, we know at last how constant 
and thorough is the process, accomplishing 
the changes as rapidly as we are able, bring- 
ing severer tests when our faith is greater, 
and steadily casting forth all that is not in 
accord with the divine ideaL 

Thus a time comes when we make almost 
no exertion in the old-time way, by affirming, 
by holding mental pictures, and reaching forth 
to attain ideals. Instead, we maintain a quiet, 
even attitude, inmostly at peace, ready for 
any experience the divine life may bring. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I. EARLY PERIOD— HISTORY. MENTAL 
SCIENCE. 

Evans, Warren F. : The Mental Cure, Boston, 1869; 

Mental Medicine, 1872; Soul and Body, 1876; 

The Divine Law of Cure, 1881 ; Primitive Mind 

Cure, 1885; Esoteric Christianity, 1886. 
Dresser, Julius A. : True History of Mental Science 

(Quimby's discovery), Boston, 1887. 
Root, Julia A. : Healing Power of Mind, San 

Francisco, 1884. 
Grimke, S. S. : Personified Unthinkables, 1884. 

(Mental pictures; idealism.) 
Titcomb, Sarah E. : Mind-cure on a Material Basis, 

Boston, 1885. 
Merriman, Helen B. : What Shall Make Us Whole? 

Boston, 1887. 
Barrows, Charles M. : Facts and Fictions of Men- 
tal Healing, Boston, 1887. 
Marston, L. M. : Essentials of Mental Healing. 

Boston, 1887. 
Gill, Wm. I.: Christian Pneumatopathy, Boston, 

1887. 
Colville, W. J.: The Spiritual Science of Health 

and Healing, 1887, etc. 
Barnett, M. J.: Practical Metaphysics, 1889, etc. 

(Mental science and theosophy.) 
289 



290 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Cramer, Malinda E. : Lessons in Science and Heal- 
ing, etc. (Pioneer in divine-science phase, San 
Francisco.) 

Van Anderson, Helen: The Right Knock, 1889; 
Journal of a Live Woman, etc. (Established 
Church of the Higher Life, Boston.) 

Dewey, John Hamlin : Pathway of the Spirit, 1890; 
The Way, the Truth and the Life, etc. 

Mental Healing Monthly (first mental science peri- 
odical published in Boston). 

Mental Science Magazine, edited by A. J. Swartz, 
Chicago. 

Christian Metaphysician, edited by Geo. B. Charles, 
Chicago, 1887-1897. 

Wayside Lights, edited by L. C. Graham and other 
pioneers, Hartford, Ct. 

Harmony, edited by M. E. Cramer, San Francisco, 
1889-1906. 

Thought, forerunner of Unity, edited by Chas. Fill- 
more, Kansas City. (Practical Christianity 
phase.) 

II. MIDDLE PERIOD— NEW THOUGHT. 

Wood, Henry: Edward Burton, Boston, 1890 (New 
Thought novel) ; Ideal Suggestion through Men- 
tal Photography, 1894; God's Image in Man; 
The New Thought Simplified; The Symphony 
of Life; New Old Healing, etc. 

Cady, Emilie: Lessons in Truth; Finding the Christ 
in Ourselves, etc., Kansas City. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 

Gestefeld, Ursula : The Builder and the Plan, etc. ; 

editor of Exodus. 
Whiting, Lillian: The World Beautiful, etc., Bos- 
ton. 
Wilmans, Helen: The Blossom of the Century, 

etc.; Wilman's Express. 
Kohaus, Hannah M. : Between the Lines, Chicago. 
Mulford, Prentice: White Cross Library 

("Thoughts Are Things.") 
Mills, Anna W. : Practical Metaphysics, Chicago, 

1896. 
Dresser, Annetta G. : The Philosophy of P. P. 

Quimby, Boston, 1895. 
Yarnall, Jane: Practical Healing for Mind and 

Body, Chicago. 
Whipple, Leander E. : The Philosophy of Mental 

Healing, 1893; The Metaphysical Magazine, 

New York. (Specific image treatment. School 

of metaphysics.) 
Patterson, Chas. B. : New Thought Essays, etc.; 

Mind, monthly, New York, 1898-1906. 
New Thought, The, monthly, Melrose, Mass., 1894- 

1898. (First publication using name New 

Thought.) 
Journal of Practical Metaphysics, organ of Boston 

Metaphysical Club, edited by H. W. Dresser, 

1896-1898; merged in The Arena. 
Life, The, monthly, edited by A. P. Barton, Kansas 

City, 1897-1908. 
Universal Truth, monthly, edited by Fanny M. Har- 

ley, Chicago. 



292 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Eleanor Kirk's Idea, monthly, edited by Mrs. E. 
Ames, author of Perpetual Youth, etc., Brooklyn. 

Trine, Ralph Waldo: What All the World's a- 
Seeking, New York, 1899; In Tune With the 
Infinite, etc. 

Newcomb, Chas. B.: All's Right With the World, 
Boston, 1898. 

Winkley, J. W. : First Lessons in New Thought ; 
Practical Ideals, monthly, Boston, 1900-1912. 

Dresser, H. W. : The Power of Silence, 1895 (based 
on the Quimby philosophy) ; The Higher Law, 
monthly, Boston, 1899-1902; etc. 

Sprague, Frank H. : Spiritual Consciousness, Bos- 
ton, 1898. 

Seward, F. J.: Spiritual Knowing, 1901. 

III. LATER PERIOD. 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler: Heart of New Thought; 
Faith; Hope, etc. (New Thought poet.) 

Towne, Elizabeth: Experiences in Self-Healing; 
Lessons in Living; How to Use New Thought 
in Home Life, etc.; Nautilus, monthly, Holyoke, 
Mass., 1902-. 

New Thought, monthly, Chicago, 1902-1910. 

Power, monthly, edited by Chas. E. Prather, Den- 
ver, 1911-. 

Now, monthly, edited by H. H. Brown, San Fran- 
cisco, 1902-. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 293 

Troward, Judge: Edinburgh Lectures on Mental 
Science, Dore Lectures; Creative Process in the 
Individual. (English pioneer and leader.) 

Allen, J. L. : As a Man Thinketh, etc. 

Allen, Able L. : Message of New Thought. 

Militz, A. R. : The Sermon on the Mount ; Primary 
Lessons in Christian Living and Healing, etc.; 
editor, The Master Mind, monthly, Los Angeles. 
(Founder "Homes of Truth.") 

Rix, Harriet Hale: Christian Mind Healing, Los 
Angeles. 

Douglass, R. C. : Spiritual Evolution or Regenera- 
tion, Boston, 1905. 

Ellsworth, Paul: Direct Healing, Gist of New 
Thought, etc., Holyoke, Mass. 

Marden, O. S.: The Miracle of Right Thought; 
Peace, Power and Plenty, etc., New York. 

Mills, Jas. P. : Illumination Spiritual Healing, New 
York. 

Spinney, William A.: Health Through Self-Con- 
trol, Boston. 

Atkinson, W. W. : Mind and Body; New Thought: 
Its History and Principles (attributes New 
Thought to the liberal movement, not to the 
mental healing pioneers) ; Advanced Thought, 
monthly, Chicago. 

Crane, Aaron M. : Right and Wrong Thinking, 
etc. 

Wilson, Floyd B. : Paths to Power, etc., 1901. 

Brown, Grace M. : Think Right ; Mental Harmony, 
New York, 1916; The Essene, monthly, Denver. 



294 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bradbury, Harriet B. : The New Philosophy; The 
Light That Is in Thee, etc., Boston. 

Fillmore, Chas. : Christian Healing, etc. ; Unity, 

monthly, Kansas City. 

Gleaner, The, edited by W. John Murray, New York. 

Dresser, H. W.: Health and the Inner Life, 1906 
(historical) ; Handbook of the New Thought, 
New York, 1917 (exposition; definition; esti- 
mate; allied lines of thought). 

IV. ALLIED SUBJECTS. 

Tuke, Daniel H. : The Influence of the Mind on 
the Body, London, 1884 (medical). 

Carpenter, W. B. : Mental Physiology, New York, 
1876. (Unconscious cerebration.) 

Fletcher, Horace: Menticulture, 1899, etc. (Power 
of thought.) 

Hudson, Thos. J. : The Law of Psychic Phenomena, 
Chicago, 1894; Scientific Demonstration of the 
Future Life; The Law of Mental Medicine, 
etc. (The author overemphasizes the contrast 
between the objective and subjective, as if we 
had two minds; is not guided by actual experi- 
ence in mental healing.) 

Buckley, J. M. : Faith Healing, Christian Science, 
and Kindred Phenomena, 1892. (Historical, 
critical.) 

Besant, Annie: Thought Power: Its Control and 
Culture. (Theosophy.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 295 

Schofield, A. T.: The Force of Mind; The Un- 
conscious Mind, etc. (Psychotherapy.) 

DuBois, P.: The Psychic Treatment of Nervous 
Disorders. (Based on physiological psychology 
and determinism.) 

Milmine, Georgine: The Life of M. B. G. Eddy. 
(Historical, accurate.) 

Worcester, Ell wood: Religion and Medicine, New 
York, 1908 (first book on the Emmanuel Move- 
ment) ; The Christian Religion as a Healing 
Power, 1909. 

Powell, Lyman : The Emmanuel Movement in a 
New England Town. 

MacDonald, R.: Mind, Religion, and Health, 1908. 

Brown, Chas. R.: Faith and Health, 1910; The 
Healing Power of Suggestion, 1916. 

Fallows, S. : Health and Happiness, 1908. 
Huckel, Oliver: Mental Medicine, 1909. 

Sadler, W. S. : The Physiology of Faith and Fear, 
Chicago, 1912. (A physician's correction of 
mental healing.) 

Munsterberg, Hugo: Psychotherapy, 1909. (A ma- 
terialistic interpretation; denies the existence 
of the subconscious.) 

Severn, Elizabeth : Psychotherapy, Philadelphia, 
1914. (An intelligent study by a physician who 
has successfully applied mental healing.) 

Cobb, Rev. W. F. : Spiritual Healing, London, 1914. 
(Partly historical, regards the subject from the 
outside.) 



296 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bbuce, H. Addington: Scientific Mental Healing, 
Boston, 1911. (Traces the history with a view- 
to showing superiority of psychotherapy, over- 
looks inner values of New Thought.) 

Ernest, Jones : Papers on Psycho- Analysis, New 
York, 1916. (A typical work by a devotee of 
Dr. Sigmund Freud of the psycho-analytic 
school.) 

Randall, Rev. J. Hermann: A New Philosophy of 
Life, etc. (Excellent and sympathetic.) 

Cutten, Geo. B. : The Psychological Phenomena 
of Christianity, New York, 1908; Three Thou- 
sand Years of Mental Healing, 1911. (Fails 
to see the inner connection between Christianity 
and spiritual healing.) 

Purinton, E. E. : Efficient Living. (Popular study 
of mental efficiency.) 

•Mason, Dr. Osgood: Telepathy and the Subliminal 
Self. 

James, William: Varieties of Religious Experience 
(estimates the New Thought as "The Religion 
of Healthy-mindedness") ; Pragmatism (method 
of testing ideas by reference to experience) ; 
Psychology, Briefer Course (shows dependence 
of mind on body) ; The Will to Believe (shows 
power and freedom of the will). 

Mann, Rev. Chas. : Psychiasis (interprets mental 
healing from Swedenborg's point of view). 

Hepher, Rev. Cyril: The Fellowship of Silence; 
The Fruits of Silence, London, 1916. (A high 
churchman's appeal for silence, with practical 
emphasis on inner experience.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 297 

Courtenay, Rev. Chas. : The Empire of Silence, 
New York, 1916. (Comprehensive study of 
silence in all its bearings save the intimate rela- 
tion to healing; overlooks practical values of 
mysticism.) 

Riley, Woodbridge: American Thought from Puri- 
tanism to Pragmatism, New York, 1915. (Gives 
the background of transcendentalism, etc., but 
overlooks the inner meaning of the healing 
movement.) 

Coe, Geo. A.: The Spiritual Life, New York, 1900 
(contains study of divine healing) ; The Psy- 
chology of Religion, Chicago, 1916 (misses the 
interior values of spiritual experience; chiefly 
valuable for its comprehensive bibliography). 

Leuba, James H. : New York, 1912. (Regards 
mental healing movement sympathetically as a 
recent form of religion.) 






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